Taliban Clash Leaves 100 Afghans Dead
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
KABUL, Afghanistan – More than 100 people died as Taliban fighters and Afghan forces clashed yesterday in the fiercest fighting since British troops arrived in southern Afghanistan last month.
A wave of attacks left up to 87 Taliban fighters and suicide bombers dead.
The clashes also killed about 15 Afghan police, an American civilian, an Afghan civilian,and a Canadian soldier.
A British Chinook helicopter transported police casualties and the military cared for wounded Afghan police.
Hundreds of militiamen attacked a town in southern Afghanistan where 3,300 British soldiers have deployed as part of a NATO task force.
The nine-hour battle began after police received reports indicating that Taliban fighters had massed in the Musa Qala district on Wednesday.
Coalition forces provided air support to drive off the fighters. The deputy provincial governor of Helmand, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, said it was the biggest attack in the region since the fall of the Taliban.
Fighting continued in the village of Sar Besha, about 12 miles north of the town, a spokesman for Helmand’s governor said.
President Karzai blamed Pakistan for allowing the Taliban to hide in its border areas.
“We have credible reports that inside Pakistan in the madrassas the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: ‘Go to Afghanistan for jihad and burn the schools and clinics.'”
