Forces drive Taliban from key Afghan town

[unhappycamper]

Afghan police search passengers headed for Musa Qala at a checkpoint on the outskirts of the town Dec. 10 after Afghan and international forces retook Musa Qala. The town had been held by Taliban militants since February, though foreign fighters -- possibly members of al-Qaida -- were continuing to attack invading troops, officials said.


Forces drive Taliban from key Afghan town
By Danica Kirka - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 10, 2007 21:16:24 EST

KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of Taliban fighters retreated in trucks and motorbikes from a key southern Afghan community they overran last February as Afghan and international troops closed in on the town’s center.

Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that the victory in Musa Qala — the only important territory that the militants controlled — will have positive longterm results for the Afghan campaign.

It also gives NATO a symbolic triumph in the deadliest year of fighting in Afghanistan since 2001 and boosts hopes the Afghan government can expand into a poppy rich area where it now wields little influence.

But Musa Qala has bounced back and forth between government and Taliban control, falling into militant hands in February despite the presence of British troops nearby, and the question remained whether overstretched Afghan and NATO troops can hold the town in the long term.

Some 7,000 British troops have faced fierce battles throughout northern Helmand this year — in Kajaki, Sangin, Gereshk and Musa Qala — the world’s largest opium poppy growing region, from which the Taliban derive tens of millions of dollars.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_musaqala_071210/