| | Taliban prepares to attack Kandahar Canwest News
06/16/2008
By Doug Schmidt
[Printer Friendly Version]
Allied forces mobilizing into the region to 'meet any potential threats'
KANDAHAR CITY - Hundreds of Taliban fighters are reported to have launched an offensive Monday into a district at Kandahar city's doorstep and are digging in anticipation of an assault on the city.
Reports, confirmed by a Canadian source who spoke to Canwest News Service on condition of anonymity, say eight villages have been taken over in the Arghandab District, to the immediate north of Afghanistan's second largest city.
"More than 500 Taliban have massed in two villages in Arghandab district," Brig.-Gen. Sayed Agha Saqib, provincial police chief told AFP.
"We're preparing to launch an operation on them."
Al-Jazeera network, quoting Taliban sources, is reporting 500 fighters have massed in Arghandab and are preparing to attack the city.
Arghandab is 30 kilometres north of Kandahar City.
The Taliban staged a spectacular and successful raid on Kandahar City's Sarposa Prison on Friday, freeing close to 800 inmates, including 400 Islamic militants, almost all of whom remain on the lam.
Canadians and other military troops with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are reportedly on the move in support of Afghan national security forces in an attempt to push back the offensive and ensure the city is not attacked.
NATO spokesman Mark Laity says NATO and Afghan forces are redeploying troops to the region to "meet any potential threats."
In Kandahar City, authorities announced only about 20 of the almost 800 fugitives - half of them described as Taliban militants - had been recaptured in two days of military and police roadblocks, door-to-door searches and appeals to the public for help through radio, loudspeakers and leaflets. Only one of those recaptured was a Taliban, and eight of the 20 actually weren't caught but turned themselves in to the authorities.
"This incident was unacceptable, but it was impossible to stop," said Saqib, who blamed the great escape on a lack of equipment for police, including communications and weapons.
He also said that in the initial confusion, responding police and army units, rather than chase down the escapees, set up a cordon around Sarposa, the biggest prison in southern Afghanistan, only discovering later that it was nearly empty.
The Taliban took credit for the spectacular commando-style raid that began at about 9:30 p.m. with a massive explosion after a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden tanker truck to the main gate at Sarposa, which houses about 1,000 inmates. Dozens of militants on motorcycles were among the 80 attackers who then rushed the prison from all sides with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), machine-guns and AK-47s, as vehicles lined up outside to carry off escapees.
The official death toll keeps changing, with Saqib saying Sunday that nine guards and a child working at the prison were killed in the initial explosion and ensuing fire fight that lasted about 20 minutes.
He added he still has "no information" on the number of attackers, prisoners and possibly civilians who were also killed. About 25 nearby shops were destroyed or damaged in the blast.
As worried as local people are about the estimated 400 Taliban political fugitives, a Kandahari professional said everyone is as anxious about the hundreds of common criminals still on the lam, including convicted murderers, child kidnappers and violent drug mafia.
"People support the government, but they're confused and thinking about what they should do," said the man, who didn't want to have his name published.
"There are no problems at all in Kandahar City for security," Saqib told reporters, adding authorities are confident that "those who escaped will be recaptured very soon."
Saqib said joint operations by the Afghan national security forces and Canadian and other foreign military in support of that effort have led to the killing of 20 Taliban in Panjwaii and Dand districts, as well as the death of a Taliban commander in Zhari district - all areas where Canadian soldiers have focused their efforts at routing insurgents and preparing the way for reconstruction efforts. Saqib said 30 anti-tank mines, 50 RPGs and other improvised explosive devices and suicide bomb vests had been seized in the two-day-old manhunt.
"This prison incident was a lesson for everybody... we can't stop every incident," said Saqib, who brought a number of the seized ordnance, including artillery shells intended for roadside bombs, to the news conference.
Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, the commander of Canada's 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, also attended the media event and said if there was any "good news" to Friday's spectacular raid, it's the amount of assistance Afghan authorities are getting from citizens.
Responding to one question in French, with no translation for Saqib or the Afghan media, Thompson said: "We are in the process of building the Afghan forces, but we are not done yet - we have done half, and half still needs to be done."
Afghan authorities have launched a high-level investigation into the large prison break, including a look at whether the Taliban benefitted from insiders within the Afghan security forces.
With files from AFP
Other Stories:
|
|