Taliban suffer another defeat

Reuters/NY Times:

Canadian and Afghan troops killed more than 30 Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Zabul on June 5, the U.S.-led military coalition said in a statement on Saturday.

A joint force engaged over 60 insurgents in the Arghandab district of Zabul. Neither the Afghan nor Canadian troops, who are serving with the coalition, suffered any casualties, the statement said.

An insurgency raging since U.S.-backed forces ousted a Taliban government in late 2001 is going through its bloodiest phase, with 400 people, mostly militants, killed in May alone.

The spiralling violence has resulted from increased Taliban activity, and diplomats and military officials believe the insurgents are trying to spread alarm among NATO governments before the deployment of thousands of extra alliance peacekeepers in the country.

NATO is expected to boost its troop strength to 17,000 from 9,000 by the end of July, while the United States is expected to reduce its force to 20,000 from 23,000.

On Thursday, coalition artillery killed 10 Taliban fighters in Deh Rawood district of Uruzgan, another southern province where the Taliban has counted on strong local support.

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In another part of Uruzgan on Thursday evening, Afghan and coalition forces foiled an ambush, and cornered 10 guerrillas in a walled compound nearby. Air support was called in and four Taliban fighters were killed.

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The Taliban are not very smart insurgents. They keep massing their forces in the open where they are vulnerable to the superior fire power of the NATO forces. Their "offensive" is as big a disaster as the one at the Somme in World War I where several thousand British troops were killed in a massive attack on German lines.