Kandahar, July 03: Afghanistan's insurgent Taliban
said on Friday it had not started directly fighting against
Britain and US operations under way in Helmand province but
was using guerrilla tactics.
About 4,000 US Marines were inserted into Taliban
strongholds in the south of the province yesterday while
hundreds of British soldiers are continuing an operation
launched two weeks ago north of the town of Lashkar Gah.
Taliban spokesman Yosuf Ahmadi said the militants had
planted mines in various roads to meet the troops and that
some vehicles had been blown up, causing several casualties.
The military has said two British soldiers were killed in
a bomb blast on Wednesday and a Marine in hostile fire on
yesterday.
"We are trying not to engage with them too soon because
there are a lot of them and they would use air force in which
case there will be civilian casualties," Ahmadi said.
"So far we did not start any fight with them face to face
but we are conducting our own guerrilla clashes, especially in
Nawa and Garmsir," he said.
Ahmadi also dismissed the operations saying they would
fail "like the ones they had before".
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, July 03, 2009, 23:37