QALAT, Afghanistan – Hundreds of Afghan government troops prepared Sunday for a new offensive against Taliban guerrillas in the south and east, including along the border with Pakistan.
The planned offensive came amid a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who told a joint news conference in Kabul with President Hamid Karzai that the infiltration of terrorists into Afghanistan “is something that requires continuing attention.”
“It’s happening all across the globe. It proves the point that the global war on terror is not a problem in one country or for one country,” Rumsfeld said.
A spate of attacks on Afghan police positions along the border and inland and heavy fighting in the past two weeks in a remote mountainous region of southern Zabul province have raised fresh doubts about the precarious grip Karzai has over parts of the country.
Karzai, who took power after U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, has postponed for two months the process of approving a new constitution, his spokesman said Sunday.
The president insisted, however, that historic elections – the first in Afghanistan in decades – will take place as planned in June 2004.
The delay in holding a council meeting of 500 delegates to form the constitution followed demands from the commission in charge that it needs more time to get input from ordinary Afghans.
There have been public quarrels between conservative elements, including within Karzai’s government, who want the constitution to enshrine Islamic Sharia law, and secularists who want it to embrace liberal traditions.
U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said that more than 100 Taliban guerrillas have been killed in the fighting since Aug. 30 – centered on the Dai Chupan district of southern Zabul province. Four American troops have also been killed in the past month, one in Dai Chupan.
The latest raid on the insurgents came Saturday night and involved American aircraft, Davis said.
While the situation in Dai Chupan has calmed in recent days, Afghan officials say forces are still hunting Taliban believed to have moved to nearby areas.
Hundreds of Afghan troops have been sent to the town of Naubaghar, some 45 miles east of Qalat – the capital of Zabul province – to join another offensive against Taliban insurgents, said Ahmad Zia Masoud, a spokesman for the governor of neighboring Ghazni province.
“We have reports about many Taliban are in this area … but we haven’t launched our operation yet,” Masoud said.
Dozens of U.S. troops in armored personnel carriers were also deployed in the area, he said.
There were fresh reports of fighting near the Pakistani border, where suspected Taliban insurgents attacked a police station. There were no casualties during the two-hour firefight late Saturday and early Sunday in Ziruk, in eastern Paktika province, said Sayed Khan, a police spokesman in the province.
