KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) — Afghan forces secured the centre of the southern town of Musa Qala Tuesday after driving out Taliban fighters based there for 10 months, but the rebels vowed to fight back.
The Afghan defence ministry said it knew of only four civilians killed in the operation that began with soldiers advancing on the town in the main opium-producing southern province of Helmand on Friday and entering Monday.
A Musa Qala resident, however, told AFP by telephone he knew of eight members of one family killed in an air strike and two women and two children killed separately.
Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which supported the Afghan Army, and several Taliban -- officials did not state numbers -- have also been killed.
"Great caution was taken to avoid civilian casualties," defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters in Kabul, saying that the four people killed had been used as "human shields" by Taliban fighters.
Mohammad Nasir, who told AFP of the air-strike victims, added that there had not been as much fighting as expected.
Azimi described the operation as a success. "Afghan army and NATO forces are busy fortifying their positions in Musa Qala at this stage and a search operation is ongoing," he said.
But some rebel fighters remain in Musa Qala district, Azimi said. "That is why we say the next 48 hours are crucial," he added.
ISAF said it expected some Taliban were still holed up in the town.
"We anticipate that there will continue to be some resistance from Taliban fighters," said Carlos Branco, ISAF spokesman. "There is a likelihood of Taliban pockets that will have to be cleared."
A broader operation is under way in Helmand to retake the districts of Nawzad, Baghran and Washir which are still in Taliban hands, Azimi said.
Some of the Musa Qala Taliban moved to Sangin district, where hundreds attacked the district centre but were pushed out. The defence ministry said earlier in the day that "dozens of enemy" were killed or wounded in two days of fighting there.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the rebel fighters had pulled out of the town Monday but said they would continue their campaign.
"Our aim is to beat the enemy and inflict maximum casualties. Having them in Musa Qala makes it even easier for us to attack them," Yousuf Ahmadi said.
The police chief of Helmand, Mohammad Hussain Andiwal, said authorities were expected to raise the national flag in the town later Tuesday. He said the Taliban suffered "big casualties" but did not give a figure.
The Taliban stormed Musa Qala 10 months ago, breaking a controversial deal in which British forces pulled out on the request of elders who said they would handle security after months of intense fighting.
The town then became a base for the fighters, whose insurgency is at its bloodiest this year with around 6,000 people dead. The operation to take it back had been long awaited.
Helmand is Afghanistan's main opium-growing area and a stronghold for the Taliban militia who were removed from government in 2001 for harbouring Al-Qaeda leaders after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Southern Afghanistan, from where the Taliban rose in early 1996, sees the worst of the insurgency violence with regular attacks.
On Tuesday Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy supplying ISAF in the southern province of Kandahar, setting off three hours of fighting in which five policemen and eight Taliban were killed, police said.
They separately blew up a car bomb near an ISAF convoy in the same area, killing two civilians, provincial police chief General Sayed Aqa Saqib said.
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