(Corrects spelling of dateline to ARGHANDAB)
By Ismail Sameem
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Helicopter gunships andtroops with small and heavy arms blasted a valley in southernAfghanistan on Wednesday as local and NATO forces launched ahuge offensive against hundreds of Taliban insurgents, many ofwhom broke out of jail last week.
The defence ministry in Kabul said 20 Taliban guerrillaswere killed in a NATO air strike and two Afghan army officersalso died in the operation, in Arghandab district. The ministrysaid three Taliban group leaders were killed further south.
Some 600 Taliban fighters on Monday took over villages inArghandab, on the northern outskirts of Kandahar city, daysafter freeing hundreds of inmates in an attack on the city'smain jail, according to the Taliban and an Afghan official.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said militants hadset their sights on Kandahar itself, the movement's birthplace,which lies about 20 km (12 miles) from Arghandab.
After massing troops, Afghan army and NATO-led forces havenow started an offensive to flush out the Taliban from thevillages, while stepping up security in Kandahar city andimposing a night curfew.
The developments in Kandahar come amid rising violence inthe past two years, the bloodiest period since Taliban'sremoval from power in 2001 in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, four Afghan police were killed when a remotecontrolled bomb hit their vehicle in the southeastern provinceof Khost, a provincial official said. Later, an abortivesuicide attack aimed at a NATO convoy in the western provinceof Farah, killed two Afghan civilians and wounded ten others.
And on Tuesday, four British soldiers from NATO-led forcewere killed after a roadside bomb struck their vehicle inHelmand, bordering Kandahar, the bloodiest single incident inone day against the British soldiers in Afghanistan.
One of the soldiers is believed to be a woman.
THOUSNADS FLEE
Thousands of families have fled Arghandab since Monday,when NATO warned that an operation would be staged to flush outthe Taliban from the district, said Agha Lalai, a member ofKandahar's provincial council and a tribal chief of Arghandab.
Mohammad Faiz who had managed to evacuate his family a dayearlier, was hoping on Wednesday to return for his belongingsfrom the lush valley of Arghandab, which is known for its juicypomegranates as well as hashish production.
"I have come to see if I can take away our house items," hetold reporters at the head of Arghandab valley, as vehiclescarrying foreign and Afghan forces drove along the dusty narrowroad at high speed. Afghan forces barred journalists fromstaying long in the area.
Several NATO helicopter gunships were seen firing attargets in the distance, while the sound of artillery and smallarms fire echoed.
The Taliban could not be contacted on Wednesday about theoperation or their reported losses.
The Afghan defence ministry says that at least eightvillages had been taken by the Taliban who, according to someescapees, had planted land mines to deter attempts to expelthem.
The capture of the villages is part of the militants'latest show of power in Afghanistan, which is suffering itsworst spell of violence since 2001 when the Taliban were oustedfrom power.
The austere Islamist movement emerged from religiousschools on the Pakistani border in Kandahar province in theearly 1990s.
The militants, who suffered heavy casualties inconventional past battles, have switched recently to operatingin small groups, according to analysts.
The latest flare-up comes despite the presence inAfghanistan of more than 60,000 foreign troops under thecommand of the U.S. military and NATO, as well as about 150,000Afghan soldiers.
(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by David Fox)
