Afghan operation kills 178 Taliban, leaders escape

A total of 178 Taliban fighters were killed and 56 captured in three days of fighting in south Afghanistan, one of the group's bloodiest setbacks since their 2001 overthrow, the Defence Ministry said yesterday.

But senior Taliban commanders thought to have been in the area of the US-backed operation, in the region where the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul meet, escaped, ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman said.

"From the start of this joint operation, on June 21, until last night, 178 Taliban were killed and 56 arrested," he said.

The Interior Ministry, which on Friday gave a toll of 109 guerrillas dead, said most were killed by US air strikes. The US military on Wednesday gave an estimate of 40-50 guerrillas dead, but has not provided any fresh estimates.

The Defence Ministry said on Thursday that Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by the elusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, were surrounded in the operation, but Paiman said they had apparently escaped.

US and Afghan forces have reported killing more than 200 insurgents in the past week alone and more than 300 since March in their drive to protect September 18 parliamentary elections.

While the latest losses will have been a blow to the Taliban, the insurgency has grown stronger since the end of the winter and analysts say it has drawn hundreds of new recruits from Pakistan and elsewhere.

US-led forces ousted the Taliban government after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 attacks on the United States, but three and a half years on, they have been unable to subdue the insurgency or catch bin Laden.

A month-long voter registration period began yesterday, but UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Jean Arnault, briefing the UN Security Council on Friday, said worsening security made it necessary to attack the insurgents' financing, safe havens and support networks as well as use military force.

Analysts say the key to success of the polls will be Pakistan, the Taliban's main backer before joining the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Afghan and US officials have accused Pakistan of failing to act against guerrilla safe havens and the Taliban have claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on poll workers and candidates.