Kabul: Coalition and Afghan troops on Wednesday
retook control of a remote Afghan district in the northeast
after fierce fighting that left 28 Taliban rebels dead,
officials said.
The Taliban had earlier captured western parts of Do
Ab district in troubled Nuristan province, which borders
Pakistan, and threatened to overrun the entire area, Nuristan
governor Jamaludin Badr said.
But the defence ministry later said that Afghan troops
were dropped from helicopters to fight around the district and
"without any delay cleared the district from the enemies of
Afghanistan`s people".
A spokesman for the Afghan interior ministry, Zemarai
Bashary, said that 28 rebels were killed and 24 others
injured.
Bashary said two members of the Afghan security forces
were injured in the fighting, but Badr, the governor, said
that three police officers had died in clashes over the past
24 hours.
"Currently, Afghan security forces are stationed in the
district (and) life has returned to normal," the defence
ministry added in a statement.
Badr confirmed this, while a spokesman for the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the
operation was a combined one, featuring a foreign air support
team and ground forces.
PTI
