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Ray · 11-01-2006, 16:58 PM

Take heart.

All is not lost.

Quote:

NATO Forces Fight Taliban in 5 Provinces of Afghanistan

By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
Published: November 1, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 31 — Clashes erupted in five provinces in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Monday and Tuesday, with roadside bombs, suicide bombings and gun battles killing four NATO soldiers and an estimated 67 Taliban fighters, NATO officials said.

The violence came as NATO forces continued a military operation started last week intended to put pressure on Taliban forces through the fall and winter, and to allow reconstruction and development to reach the country’s restive south and east, NATO officials said. Taliban forces, meanwhile, continued to demonstrate their ability to carry out multiple roadside bombings and suicide attacks.

In the eastern province of Nuristan on Tuesday, a roadside bomb killed three NATO soldiers and wounded one as they patrolled in Weygal district, NATO officials said. In separate attack on Tuesday, one Afghan policeman died and two NATO soldiers were wounded in a suicide bombing in Ghazni Province, just south of Kabul.

On Monday, NATO soldiers involved in the new operation, named “Oqab,” or eagle, battled Taliban fighters in a six-hour firefight in the Daychopan district of the southern province of Zabul, NATO officials said. The clash killed one NATO soldier and an estimated 55 Taliban insurgents, they said.

In a second attack on Monday, three NATO soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Kunar. In a third clash on Monday, NATO forces in the Zhera district of the southern province of Kandahar called in an airstrike on a group of suspected insurgents on the roof of a compound. The bombing killed as many as 12 insurgents, according to NATO officials.

Maj. Luke Knittig, a NATO spokesman, cautioned that the Taliban toll from Monday and Tuesday was an estimate. He said the figures had been based on sightings by pilotless aerial vehicles, aircraft and NATO soldiers directly involved in gun battles with insurgents.

“It is not a precise endeavor,” he said. “But we had eyes on these targets.”

Last week, Afghan villagers reported that dozens of civilians were killed in an errant NATO airstrike in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province. An investigation ordered by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, is still under way.

The clashes on Monday and Tuesday came after dozens of suspected Taliban were reportedly killed by NATO-led forces in fighting on Saturday in southern Oruzgan Province.

Since NATO took over responsibility for the region from American troops at the beginning of August, 56 of its soldiers have been killed in fighting. The nationalities of the four NATO soldiers killed Monday and Tuesday were not released.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/wo.../01afghan.html