US-led forces vow to reclaim Taliban-controlled towns
US-led forces will launch “decisive operations” to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the US military said today.
Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of two far southern Helmand districts near the border with Pakistan.
A senior Afghan official accused two Pakistani Islamic groups of taking part in the militant operation.
“The Taliban extremists have taken control of the areas of Garmser and Naway-i-Barakzayi.
However, coalition forces do have them under observation,” military spokesman Col Tom Collins told reporters in Kabul.
“Decisive operations will begin soon,” he added, but declined to say when.
Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Malik Sidiqi, however, said government forces had taken back control of Naway-i-Barakzayi last night.
It wasn’t immediately possible to explain the discrepancy between his information and the coalition spokesman’s.
A US official said the battlefield situation was fluid and details on Naway-i-Barakzayi’s return to government control may have not yet reached American forces.
