Villagers flee south Afghanistan area where Taliban has massed for a fight
Afghan and NATO forces fly in to confront insurgents that have moved into a dozen villages near Kandahar. Locals say the Taliban are laying mines and destroying bridges in preparation for battle.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Thousands of frightened villagers fled a district in southern Afghanistan that was overrun by Taliban fighters as Afghan and NATO forces today flew in hundreds of reinforcements to confront the insurgents.
About 700 Afghan troops were airlifted to the main coalition base outside Kandahar after Taliban fighters moved into nearly a dozen villages in the strategic Arghandab district, a fertile swath of land just 10 miles northwest of the southern city. Kandahar was once the spiritual home of the Taliban movement.
Canadian forces, who have the primary responsibility for securing Kandahar and its environs, were also repositioning themselves in response to the developments, said NATO spokesman Mark Laity. He declined to give details about their deployment, citing operational security.
Local officials and villagers said the Taliban, who pushed into the area on Sunday night, were laying mines, blocking roads and destroying footbridges, apparently preparing to do battle with arriving Afghan and Western troops.
While the two sides girded for confrontation, up to 4,000 villagers took refuge in Kandahar, despite their reluctance to leave their fields and farms. Arghandab is famous for its grapes and pomegranates, which wither in the summer heat without constant care. Harvest time was to have been later this month.
A Taliban field commander in Arghandab, reached by telephone, boasted that his fighters were determined to hold their positions. His force has been bolstered by hundreds of prisoners who escaped Kandahar's main prison in a Taliban-staged break last week.
Taliban fighters have previously infiltrated Arghandab, but have always melted away when confronted by Canadian forces. Their numbers then were thought to be smaller than the current occupying force, however.
Laity, the NATO spokesman, cautioned that the Taliban might be exaggerating their troop strength. But villagers' accounts appeared to bear out the presence of a substantial fighting force.
Control of the district, which is bisected by the Arghandab River, is seen as crucial to the security of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city. Currently, the Taliban control most of the area to the west of the river, where groves and vineyards provide ample cover, local officials said. On the eastern side of the river, Afghan forces set up checkpoints and enforced a curfew. Kandahar-bound refugees, many in battered cars and trucks piled high with belongings, were stopped and searched.
Arghandab has been seen as increasingly vulnerable to infiltration in recent months following the deaths, one of natural causes and one in a suicide attack, of two local leaders who had helped prevent the Taliban from moving in. Mullah Naqib died of a heart attack last fall, and militia leader Abdul Hakim Jan was killed in a suicide bombing in February.
laura.king@latimes.com
Special correspondent Faiez reported from Kabul and Times staff writer King from Istanbul.
