25 killed as Taliban stronghold destroyed

KABUL—Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces destroyed an insurgent headquarters near the southern city of Kandahar overnight, killing an estimated two-dozen guerrillas, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
Troops backed by air support attacked two compounds in Ashoqeh Village, 17 km (10 miles) southwest of the southern city of Kandahar, the military said. It was the latest in a series of clashes in the Islamist Taliban-dominated south in recent weeks in which the US military said coalition forces have killed hundreds of insurgents.
“Intelligence suggested that the compounds, comprised of seven buildings, contained multiple insurgent leaders responsible for the deaths of Afghans and Coalition forces during IED attacks and ambushes,” the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement. “A total of 25 insurgents were estimated killed during the course of the evening’s operations,” it added, saying a suicide bomber blew himself up during the initial engagement.
The Taliban, who have been locked in a deadly insurgency against the Afghan government and Western troops since their overthrow in 2001, had no immediate information. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll. Saturday’s clash comes on the heels of a series of similar incidents in recent weeks, and just days after a Taliban suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives near the Afghan capital’s airport, killing two Afghan soldiers and wounding a dozen people.
Copying Iraqi insurgents’ tactics, the Taliban largely rely on suicide attacks and roadside bombs as part of their campaign against the Afghan government and some 50,000 foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military. During the past 19 months, more than 7,000 people, including many civilians, have been killed.
Nineteen South Koreans held captive by Afghanistan’s Taliban for six weeks under threat of death arrived home on Sunday, saying they felt as if they had died and then got their lives back. The former hostages had tearful reunions with their families at a hospital outside Seoul before undergoing medical checks.
“We apologise to the people for causing trouble and thank everyone who helped us return home safely,” the spokesman for the Christian aid workers told reporters at Incheon airport after a drama which gripped the country. “We owe the country and the people a great debt,” said Yu Kyeong-Sik.
“We had basically died and have got our lives back. We plan to live in a way that will make you proud, and we promise that to you and we will repay our debt.” Guerrillas posing as passengers abducted 16 women and seven men on July 19 from their bus in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.
The extremists murdered two men last month to press their demands to exchange the Koreans for Taliban prisoners, a condition firmly rejected by the Kabul government. After starting talks in Afghanistan with South Korean officials, the Taliban on August 13 released two women in what they called a “goodwill gesture” and finally freed the remainder of the group last Wednesday and Thursday.
It was only then that the 19 learnt that two of their colleagues had been killed. “When we heard about that, all of us were unable to recover from that,” said Yu, 55. “We ask that you give us a little bit of time and space and once we are able to rest we will explain everything in detail.”—Agencies