NATO: 32 suspected militants killed in southern Afghan province
By Amir Shah, APThursday, February 4, 2010
NATO: 32 suspected militants killed in Afghanistan
KABUL — NATO and Afghan forces have killed 32 suspected militants in a southern province that is the focus an imminent anti-Taliban offensive, officials said Thursday.
A start date for the push to capture the Helmand province town of Marjah from the militants has not been released for security reasons. But U.S. and Afghan commanders have said it will be soon.
Joint forces raided Taliban compounds in the village of Khushan in Helmand’s Nad Ali district on Wednesday morning, killing 32 militants, according to provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi.
Three Afghan soldiers were killed and four others wounded, he said.
NATO spokesman Lt. Nico Melendez said 32 insurgents were killed over the last week in Helmand but did not provide exact locations or dates.
The upcoming military action in Marjah will be the first major offensive since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and many of the Marines set to participate arrived as part of the surge.
Unlike past operations, the plans for Marjah have been widely publicized by U.S. and Afghan commanders in hopes that many civilians and Taliban fighters not deeply committed to the insurgency will leave the town. But they have not released the date.
In northern Afghanistan, 81 Afghan prisoners were returned from Tajikistan — the first to be transferred under an agreement between the two countries that lets convicted prisoners serve their terms in their homelands.
Deputy Justice Minister Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai said most of the inmates were suspected drug traffickers and were transferred to a prison in the border province of Kunduz.
The handover came 10 days after an Afghan delegation traveled to Tajikistan to discuss the issue.
Hashimzai said Tajikistan would return some 250 Afghan prisoners, but he did not provide a specific time frame. He said Afghanistan is holding 12 Tajik prisoners who also would be returned soon.
Tajikistan is one of the main conduits for drug trafficking out of neighboring Afghanistan. The U.N. has estimated up to 100 tons of heroin is smuggled annually across the 830-mile (1,300-kilometer) border between the two countries.
Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
