100 Taliban Killed in Afghanistan Clashes
In fighting take place Saturday, up to 100 Taliban militants were killed in the Afghan province of Helmand, one of the Taliban’s main strongholds. The fighting erupted after Taliban attacked ISAF troops (International Security Assistance Force led by NATO). The ISAF forces fought back, and quite successfully so.
The clashes came shortly after both the British and American government said they believed peace and order could be restored in Afghanistan by holding peacetalks with the Taliban, for they could not be beaten militarily.
Taliban Fighter Dead
Fighting started in the outskirts of the town of Lashkar Gah around midnight on Saturday and lasted for three hours. An Afghan official said it was the “worst fighting” he had “ever seen in town.”
Captain Mark Windsor, an Isaf spokesperson, said that although many Taliban may have been killed in the battle, the allied forces “do not do body counts.”
“We do not try to figure out the number of insurgents killed … once you get into the details or try to guess a number, then things might be different to what you said at the beginning,” he said.
“What we do know is that this was a planned attack against the Afghan base, where they had tried to take over the compound. What followed was an operation to battle these insurgents.”
A spokesman for the Helmand province said approximately 64 Taliban were killed, in this particular battle. In another battle, on the same day and in the same province, 40 Taliban were reported killed. This means that around 100 Taliban fighters were killed on Saturday, a devastating day for the extremists, a productive day for allied forces and the Afghan government.
However, Afghan authorities have been known to drive up the death toll as part of anti-Taliban and pro-government propaganda. As such, their words should not be automatically considered correct.
If many Taliban were indeed killed, the battle could very well encourage the Taliban to take part in peacetalks. This would be an important step, for the government and allied troops have proven unable to beat the Taliban militarily.
Additionally, the problems with opium continue. NATO agreed to declare a war on this drug last week, which will undoubtedly result in poor Afghan farmers becoming even poorer. If the West wants to win over Afghan farmer (and villagers), destroying the only crop they can successfully grow in the desert-like country may not be wise.
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