20 Taliban Reported Killed in Battle

Afghan police backed by U.S. warplanes battled Taliban guerrillas in a southern province for several hours Friday, as President Hamid Karzai announced that he would visit neighbor Pakistan to complain about militants crossing the border to launch attacks.

At least 20 Taliban fighters were killed, including two local commanders identified as Mullah Nasro and Mullah Torjan, Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanekzai said in Kabul, the capital. Three police officers were killed and 10 injured; the U.S. military reported no American casualties.

Three Taliban rebels were captured but other attackers escaped, Stanekzai said.

The battle began early Friday when an Afghan police convoy was ambushed by scores of Taliban fighters in Fateh Mohammed Pech, a valley near the Sangeen district of Helmand province, Stanekzai said.

The U.S. military said it deployed A-10 Thunderbolt warplanes, which are designed to attack armored vehicles such as tanks, to provide close air support to the Afghan forces. U.S. ground forces also participated, Stanekzai said.

Afghan army troops were dispatched from neighboring Kandahar province but arrived after the battle was over, the Interior Ministry spokesman said.

About 3,300 British troops are preparing to move into Helmand province in a deployment by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Their main mission will be to aid reconstruction efforts. But they are likely to be targeted by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, who have stepped up suicide bombings and other attacks over the last year.

Suicide bombings were rare in Afghanistan before U.S. and Afghan forces toppled the extremist Taliban regime in 2001. But the number of such attacks has surged, especially in the south where NATO troops have been deploying as the U.S. reduces its 19,000-strong force in Afghanistan to about 16,500 troops this year.

About 9,000 NATO soldiers have been aiding in security and reconstruction efforts in the mainly peaceful areas of northern and western Afghanistan since 2003. In December, the alliance agreed to send an additional 6,000 troops, including British, Canadian and Dutch forces in the south.

Opponents in NATO countries fear that their forces will suffer casualties in a war that, until now, has been fought mainly by U.S. and Afghan troops. A senior Canadian diplomat was killed Jan. 15 near Kandahar when a suicide car bomber attacked a military convoy. Two Afghan civilians also were killed and 13 people, including three Canadian soldiers, were wounded.

President Karzai told reporters Friday in Kabul that he planned to visit Pakistan on Feb. 15 for two days of talks in Islamabad, and said he would discuss the continuing attacks.

Karzai insisted that there has been no “serious terrorism threat emanating from Afghanistan” since the largely peaceful parliamentary elections in October. He said the anti-terrorism effort should “concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supplies to them, on the money coming to them.”

Karzai did not name a country, but other Afghan officials repeatedly have said that the militants are trained in Pakistan, and then cross over into Afghanistan. Karzai said Friday that he needed Pakistan’s cooperation to end the violence.

“Afghanistan and Pakistan have no other way but friendship to stop the explosions that take place in Afghanistan.” Karzai said. “We will speak with Pakistan on this issue to find a solution for these problems.

“Afghanistan cannot give sacrifices forever,” Karzai continued, his voice breaking with emotion. “Mothers in Afghanistan cannot live in fear for their children, wondering when their children will be killed and where.”