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From The Times
September 11, 2006

Nato net tightens on the Taleban

From Tim Albone in Kandahar
AMONG the grape vines, irrigation channels and poppy fields of Panjwayi, up to 1,000 Taleban are holed up. They are waiting patiently, desperate to fight 2,000 Nato and Afghan troops that surround them.

The fighters are barricaded into positions with sandbags and are prepared to fight to the death. “We are closing the circle on the Taleban,” said Major Quentin Innes, a Nato spokesman. “We have got the Taleban in a bit of a trap.”

Operation Medusa, the largest battle Nato has fought, involving its most robust force, entered its ninth day today. Afghanistan was the scene of the first US military action after 9/11 and, five years later, fighting between the Taleban and coalition troops is an intense as ever.

For the operation, Lieutenant-General David Richards, the British head of Nato’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, has called on troops from Canada, the Netherlands and the United States.

Taleban fighters are still active in southern Afghanistan and General Richards needs reinforcements if operations like this are to be rolled out simultaneously across the region.

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The effect of simultaneous missions would be devastating to the Taleban. In the town of Panjwayi more than 500 Taleban were killed, including 94 between Saturday night and Sunday morning, with Nato troops gaining ground from the insurgents. However, the progress has come at a cost.

Twenty Nato troops have died since the operation began on September 2 and 30 were injured. The Taleban are equally determined to succeed. “Our forces will never leave Panjwayi, while we have life in our bodies we will stay,” Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taleban spokesman said. “It is not possible that Muslims will retreat from the infidels.”

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