Kandahar, Afghanistan – Security forces raided a southern Afghan village and killed 15 suspected militants, including a relative of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, while fighting and attacks elsewhere left 25 people dead, an army general said Monday.
The violence extends three weeks of the fiercest battles since the Taliban’s fall in 2001, and U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said the insurgents are proving to be better organized and greater in numbers than expected.
Neumann predicted there would be no letup in the offensive against the Taliban rebels when thousands of British, Canadian and Dutch troops deploy to the volatile south by next month to take over for American troops.
Mullah Omar’s brother-in- law, Mullah Amanullah, was killed along with 14 other insurgents in Siachave village, Uruzgan province, when troops stormed the area late Sunday after a tip from tribesmen, said Afghan army commander Gen. Reh matullah Raufi.
Amanullah, whose body was recovered from the village, was the Taliban commander in the province’s Dihrawud district and responsible for numerous rebel attacks, Raufi said.
It was not clear how close Amanullah was to Omar, who is believed hiding in mountains along Afghanistan’s rugged border with Pakistan.
Two Canadian soldiers were wounded Monday in a battle with the Taliban outside Kandahar, Canadian media reported. Canadian Press said the soldiers were in serious condition.
In a second raid early Monday, Afghan and coalition troops killed 12 suspected militants in southern Kandahar province’s Saidan village, Raufi said.
The rebels were discovered hiding in a shop selling dried fruit, sparking a fierce gun battle that followed a two-day operation tracking the insurgents.
Ten other militants were killed in neighboring Helmand province’s Sangin district late Sunday in a battle involving Afghan and British forces, the Afghan general said. One British solider was killed and two were seriously wounded, Raufi said.
The surge in fighting has killed about 550 people, mostly militants, since mid-May. Neumann said the rebels have stepped up attacks to scare away NATO.
“They are making a major effort, believing wrongly that the European, Canadian forces will not have the will to fight,” he said.
