KABUL,
February 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Some 13 Afghans were
killed in an eight-hour American-Danish shelling of a civilian area in
the Baghran area of Helmand province, BBC news online quoted
eyewitnesses as saying Wednesday, February 12.
Naming
a new military offensive as "Operation Eagle Fury," Danish
F-16s joined U.S. B1 and B52 bombers and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters in
pounding the mountain valley in central Afghanistan, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
U.S.
special forces seized 12 Afghan fighters in the wake of the bombardment,
AFP quoted the U.S. military in Afghanistan as saying.
The
warplanes began bombing the valley shortly after at least 25 Afghan
fighters carrying rocket propelled grenade launchers and AK-47 rifles
were seen "moving into offensive positions" in the valley,
claimed a statement released from Bagram air base north of Kabul, the
centre of U.S. coalition operations in Afghanistan.
On
Tuesday, February 11, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Roger King said
Afghan fighters had taken up positions in mountain caves following their
initial attack from ridges overlooking the valley floor.
That
operation was the biggest confrontation involving the U.S. military in
Afghanistan for 10 months.
The
U.S. believes that fighters loyal to the Hezb-i-Islami party of former
Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are using the Adi Ghar cave
warren as a base.
Hekmatyar's
fighters have been allegedly linked by the U.S. to the former Taliban
regime and Osama ben Laden's al-Qaeda network, the prime targets of the
15-month coalition operation in Afghanistan.
Uruzgan
province, the location of the latest offensive, is believed to host a
heavy fighters' presence, and has been the scene of numerous attacks on
coalition forces and aid agencies.
Stay
in Afghanistan: Karzai
 |
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Foreign
aid agencies should stay, said Karzai
|
In
a radio interview with BBC, U.S.-installed Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, warned that a pulling out of foreign support in Afghanistan, in
the event of a U.S.-led war on Iraq, would have serious consequences for
regional stability.
"If
something goes wrong it will not only be Afghans that will suffer.
Foreign aid agencies should stay, so that this country is rebuilt in
terms of physical infrastructure until Afghanistan gets on its own feet
with regards to the institutions of government.
"Afghanistan
would be vulnerable and that vulnerability is not something that we
would want," he said.
Karzai
was speaking ahead of a trip to the U.S. next week where he will discuss
the situation in Afghanistan with U.S. President George Bush.
