Taliban Preparing For Big Attack
Taliban militants have destroyed bridges and are planting mines in many villages that they control right outside of Kandahar. Kandahar is Afghanistan’s largest city in the southern region. It is believed that the Taliban are preparing for battle.
More than 700 families, estimated to be about 4,000 people, have fled the Arghandab district, 16 kilometers or 10 miles, northwest of Kandahar, said Sardar Mohammad, a police officer manning a checkpoint on the east side of the Arghandab River. The police on Tuesday stopped and searched every person passing on the road.
On the west side of the river, hundreds of Taliban controlled as many as 10 villages, Mohammad said. “Last night the people were afraid, and families on tractors, trucks and taxis fled the area,” said Mohammad. “Small bridges inside the villages have been destroyed.” The Afghan Army flew four planeloads of soldiers to Kandahar from the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday. Canadian forces have also moved in to the region.
“When we get permission from commanders, we will attack the Taliban,” Mohammad said. Aircraft from the NATO-led security force dropped leaflets in the Arghandab area, telling residents that 700 Afghan troops were coming to force out the Taliban and warning residents to say indoors in case fighting breaks out, said a spokesman, Mark Laity.
The Taliban assault Monday on the outskirts of Kandahar was the latest display of strength by the militants despite a record number of U.S. and NATO troops in the country. The push into the Arghandab district, a lush region filled with grape and pomegranate groves that the Soviets could never conquer, came three days after a coordinated Taliban attack on a Kandahar prison that freed several hundred insurgent fighters.
The police and soldiers increased security throughout Kandahar and enforced a 10 p.m. curfew.
A Taliban commander named Mullah Ahmedullah called an Associated Press reporter on Tuesday and said that about 400 Taliban had moved into Arghandab from Khakrez, one district to the north. He said that some of the militants released in the Friday prison break had joined the assault.
“They told us, ‘We want to fight until the death,”‘ Ahmedullah said. “We’ve occupied most of the area and it’s a good place for fighting. Now we are waiting for the NATO and Afghan forces.” The hard-line Taliban regime, which was ousted from power in a 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, regarded Kandahar as its main stronghold. NATO officials have dismissed the idea that the Taliban is capable of mounting an attack on Kandahar.