40 Taliban dead after sporadic fighting

Thursday, 5 June 2003 12:00 AM

Afghan troops have killed 40 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, according to press reports.

Government forces closed in on three towns, Nimakai, Populzai and Hassanzai, where Taliban were believed to be in hiding, district administrator Fazaluddin Agha said.

A nine-hour battle ensued, leaving 40 Taliban fighters and seven soldiers dead.

Some 20 Taliban fighters were killed in Populzai. The Taliban militiamen are reported to have used rockets and machine guns aginst government forces.

The Taliban's six-year reign of terror in Afghanistan ended after the September 11th atrocities prompted the US to launch its war on terrorism on regimes harbouring known terrorists such as the al Qaeda network.

Separately, Maulana Samiul Haq, a senior Islamic leader in Pakistan, has said al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar were 'safe and alive' in Afghanistan and were fighting resident US forces there.

The fighting comes as Afghan president Hamid Karzai travels to London today in a bid to secure more UN peacekeepers and money for the poverty-stricken country.

There are calls for the expansion of the 5,500-strong security force (ISAF) which operates only in Kabul.

Asharf Ghani, the finance minister, said Afghanistan needed £9.2 billion over the next five years to secure the success of the humanitarian effort.

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