The Nato commander in Afghanistan vowed on Saturday to kick the Taliban out of a key southern town and reinstate tribal elders who struck a peace deal with foreign troops. Taliban fighters overran Musa Qala in the drug heartland of Helmand province on Thursday night, seizing the district administration office and police headquarters.
When Nato troops ran into bloodier than expected fighting in southern Afghanistan late last year, British commanders struck a deal with tribal elders in the town to withdraw if the Taliban were also kept out. Nato chief British General David Richards said locals had forcibly disarmed the Taliban, saying they had now returned seeking revenge.
"What is most important to me, and I've spoken to President (Hamid) Karzai about this, is that we look after those very brave people who had the courage to stand up to some pretty vicious hoods that now are intimidating them," Richards said.
"We will put the tribal elders back in control of Musa Qala and we will kick the Taliban out and defeat them," Richards said at the headquarters of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul.
Residents said villagers had started to flee, fearful of a Nato strike to regain the village. Richards said the alliance would try to avoid a major strike. "Yes, they could go in with lots of bombs and bullets, but you'd turn the population against them," he said.
The guerrillas routinely take towns and villages at night or for a few days but have not been able to hold their ground. Tribal loyalties are paramount in Afghanistan. Richards has led operations here for nine months, possibly the toughest period since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, and hands the ISAF force over to US general Dan McNeill on Sunday.
More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, died in fighting last year and US commanders and political leaders say the group will launch a spring offensive when the snows melt within the next few months. The Musa Qala peace deal was strongly criticised by some US commanders and other allies.
Richard commands about 33,000 ISAF troops, including thousands of US soldiers. A US-led coalition has more than 10,000 troops in the country under a separate command. ISAF denied Taliban charges it had breached the Musa Qala peace deal with nearby air strikes. It said the raids were outside the area covered by the agreement.
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