US flies Afghan troops to recapture district

[June 01, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S. helicopters flew Afghan troops into a remote district overrun by the Taliban and recaptured the main town Tuesday without firing a shot, military officials said.

The move comes ahead of a major conference in Kabul starting Wednesday where Afghan President Hamid Karzai will try to build consensus for peace overtures to the insurgents. The Taliban on Tuesday dismissed the conference as serving the interests of "foreign invaders."

A unit of about 200 elite Afghan troops landed in Barg-e-Matal district of Nuristan province before dawn in an assault backed by U.S. helicopters and a handful of American advisers, U.S. officers familiar with the operation told The Associated Press.

They recaptured the main town in the region without shooting and no one was harmed, NATO said in a statement, though the operation was still continuing and was expected to last a few days. Taliban fighters were believed to have left the town and may have taken positions elsewhere in the valley.

Government forces pulled out of the rugged, mountainous region last weekend after hundreds of Taliban fighters swept into the area from nearby Pakistan and fought for almost a week with Afghan troops and local residents, who have a reputation for fierce resistance to outsiders.

U.S. troops had established an outpost in Nuristan but abandoned it last October after eight American soldiers were killed in a fierce Taliban attack. Insurgent strength has grown in the region since, prompting fears that Taliban who have come under pressure from U.S. missile strikes and military operations in nearby Pakistan could be looking for a new haven.

The U.S. officers said Taliban fighters -- mostly Afghans but also Pakistanis and a few Arabs -- are thought to number about 500, spread out over an area of about 15 miles (25 kilometers) in a forested mountain valley.

Villagers reported that a senior Pakistani Taliban commander, Maluana Fazlullah, had been killed in fighting with Afghan troops in Nuristan last week, but officials said they had not been able to confirm it.

Nuristan is very isolated and far removed from the main battlefields in Afghanistan's south, where few people live and with limited strategic value. But taking back Barg-e-Matal would be an important symbolic victory for the Afghan military, which is often criticized as ineffective. Washington also badly wants to hand more control of security to Afghan troops.

"This successful operation by Afghan forces will return governance to Barg-e-Matal," Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said in a statement Tuesday. "This operation shows the improved planning and operational capabilities of our joint forces in response to serious incidents even in the most remote locations of Afghanistan."

NATO airstrikes pounded the area Monday ahead of the operation, targeting a cave complex Taliban leaders were believed to use as a command center, said the U.S. officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was sensitive.

The airlift inserted about 200 Afghan troops who will join up with 400 Afghan security forces that withdrew from the district center and are still in the region.

Up to 1,500 civilians living in and around the main town had fled or been evacuated before the operation started.

Fighting also raged farther south.

About 180 Taliban attacked a police post Monday in the Purchaman district in southwestern Farah province, triggering hours of fighting with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades that ended about midnight, said provincial police chief Mohammad Faqir Askar.

Fifteen Taliban were killed, one police official died and one was wounded, he said. Six villagers who joined the fight against the insurgents also were killed.

[Associated Press; By ROBERT H. REID]

Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul contributed to this report.

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