More than 300 killed in battle for Afghan city in Taliban assault
FOUR days of ferocious fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban over a key provincial capital has claimed the lives of about 100 Afghan policemen and soldiers and at least 20 civilians, the defence minister said yesterday.
Almost 200 Taliban fighters were also killed in the assault.
The numbers provided by Gen Tareq Shah Bahrami were the first official casualty toll since the Taliban launched a massive assault on Ghazni, the capital of Ghazni province, last Friday.
The multipronged assault overwhelmed the city’s defences and allowed insurgents to capture several parts of it. It was a major show of force by the Taliban, whose fighters infiltrated deep into this strategic city barely 75 miles from Kabul.
The US has sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces.
The fall of Ghazni, a city of 270,000 people, would mark an important victory for the Taliban. It would also cut off a key highway linking Kabul to the southern provinces, the Taliban’s traditional heartland.
Gen Bahrami, the defence minister, told reporters at a press conference in Kabul yesterday that the casualty figures were not yet definite.
He did not offer a breakdown of the casualties but Wais Ahmad Barmak, the interior minister, said nearly 70 policemen were among those killed.
Gen Bahrami said about 1,000 additional troops had been sent to Ghazni and helped prevent the city from falling into Taliban hands.
He also said 194 insurgents, including 12 leaders, were killed – with Pakistani, Chechen and Arab foreign fighters among the dead.
The general said the Taliban had inflicted huge damage on the city, especially Ghazni’s historical districts and its cultural heritage. He added that the next 24 hours would be decisive.
Mr Barmak said top security and government officials, as well as the military chief of staff, were now in Ghazni, leading the “clearing up operations” in different parts of the city.
The attack began on Friday, with insurgents infiltrating homes and slipping out into the night to attack Afghan forces in Ghazni.