Eurasia Press & News
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Dozens of Taliban fighters attacked an Afghan military base in restive southern Afghanistan but pulled out after losing 10 of their fighters, an official said Monday.
The rebels left their dead comrades on the battlefield and “escaped after tough resistance” Sunday night at the base in the Taliban-dominated Sangin district of southern Helmand province, district chief Ezatullah Khan said.
“After two hours of intense fighting, 10 Taliban were killed and the rest of them escaped,” Khan said. Four militants were injured, he said.
The troops from the newly-trained internationally-sponsored Afghan national army did not suffer any casualties, he said.
The hardline Taliban are active in Sangin, a poppy-cultivating region reclaimed by the government early this year.
Almost six years after being overthrown from power in a US-led military offensive, the Taliban are waging an insurgency of attacks, suicide bombings and Iraqi-style kidnappings.
The insurgency which is being resisted by Afghan security forces and a 50,000-strong international force has intensified in the past two years.
Thousands of people, mainly rebels, have died.
The focus of the Al-Qaeda-linked Taliban unrest is on mountainous regions across southern and eastern Afghanistan near the long border with Pakistan.
