Taliban slip away from Kandahar

NY Times:

Afghan officials said on Thursday that several hundred Taliban fighters had withdrawn from a strategic area near Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city, ending two days of clashes just outside it.

Local officials showed journalists what they said were abandoned Taliban positions several miles inside the area, the Arghandab district, but blocked them from venturing alone farther into it. No gunfire was heard in the area on Thursday, and villagers said Taliban fighters withdrew on Wednesday night, telling the villagers that they had come to the area to spread their views.

“They told us, ‘We are here for two days. We are not here to fight; we are here to preach,’” said Abdul Samad, 25, a farmer who remained in the area. “‘To make the people aware to not help the infidels and their cronies.’”

Afghan officials said 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the clashes and described the Taliban withdrawal as a major government victory. “They have received heavy casualties, faced humiliation, and they are gone,” said the governor of Kandahar Province, Assadullah Khalid, who led the tour.

The clashes with Afghan and NATO forces took place 15 miles north of the city. It was the closest the Taliban had come to Kandahar since 2001. Fearing a major battle, thousands of villagers fled.

The advance occurred two weeks after a local pro-government leader died of a heart attack. The leader, Mullah Naqibullah, had prevented the Taliban from entering the Arghandab area since 2001 and had survived repeated assassination attempts.

Afghan elders who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution, said they believed that the Taliban had moved into the area to test whether elements of Mr. Naqibullah’s tribe, the Alokozai, would support them. The vast majority of residents fled the area, they said, indicating that the Taliban enjoyed little popular support.

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While the effort was a failure for the Taliban it has to be a disappointment for the government that the Taliban was able to slip away after some reports suggested that 300 fighters were surrounded. It seems a mixed result, but a mostly Taliban failure. They are still being rejected and still unable to take an control territory.