Kabul, June 02: Afghan commandos and NATO troops recaptured a remote district near the Pakistan border overrun by the Taliban last week, NATO and the government said Tuesday.
The militants seized the district of Bargi Matal in rugged Nuristan province on Saturday, driving out Afghan security forces after days of fierce fighting.
On Monday, NATO jets bombed the troubled region in what NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said was an operation in support of its Afghan counterparts.
On Tuesday, the defence ministry said the district had been recaptured.
“In a joint operation of ANA (Afghan National Army) commando unit and coalition forces last night at 21:50 hours (1720 GMT) the Bargi Matal district of Nuristan province was captured by government forces,” it said.
ISAF said that no shots had been fired and no one was injured during the operation, which was “in response to the large amount of insurgent activity in the area during previous weeks”.
The Taliban are waging a nearly nine-year insurgency to overthrow the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai and evict the 130,000 foreign troops helping keep him in power.
The insurgency has gained strength in recent years as the rebels have spread their influence beyond their traditional stronghold in the country’s south.
NATO, US and Afghan troops are preparing their biggest offensive against the rebels in the southern province of Kandahar and overall foreign troop numbers are set to peak at 150,000 by August.
A NATO soldier, whose nationality was not disclosed, was killed in a bomb attack on Tuesday in the country’s south.
The death brought to 224 the number of foreign soldiers killed during the Afghan war this year, according to an AFP tally based on the icasualties.org website’s count.
As operations in the south intensify, violence has been escalating elsewhere in the country following a Taliban threat to target people and assets associated with foreign forces and the government.
One Danish soldier was killed and five others injured, one of them seriously, in two separate incidents in the southern Helmand province, the Danish military said Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear if the death was that of the NATO soldier announced earlier.
This week is thought to be especially sensitive as Karzai is hosting a huge assembly, or “jirga,” of community, political and religious leaders in Kabul to discuss how to make peace with the Taliban.
Up to 1,600 participants are expected to attend the assembly, which is set to open on Wednesday and result in a declaration on how and with whom Karzai should pursue at end to the war.
In western Farah province on Monday, militants attacked security forces, authorities there said, sparking a shootout that lasted many hours.
Provincial police chief Mohammad Faqir Askar told AFP that 15 Taliban were killed in the battle, along with one police officer.
“Six locals who were assisting the police to resist the Taliban attack were also killed,” he added.
-Agencies