Afghan, British soldiers killed as army announces new operation

Feb 25, 2010, 13:50 GMT

Kabul - Two Afghan troops and one British soldier were killed in separate blasts in Afghanistan as an army spokesman announced Thursday a new country-wide operation to last for 18 months.

Two Afghan soldiers were killed and one injured in a roadside bomb blast in the Chardarah district of the northern province of Kunduz on Thursday, Mohammad Omar, the provincial governor, said.

Three members of US Special Forces were injured in a separate blast in the same area on Thursday, Omar said. The Afghan and US forces were taking part in an operation against the Taliban in the district's Nahr Sofi area.

'More than 25 Taliban militants have been killed and injured in the ongoing operation,' Omar said, while Abdul Wahid Omarkhel, the district chief, said that around 20 insurgents were killed.

Kunduz is the main Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, a region that is relatively peaceful compared to southern and eastern provinces.

In the southern province of Kandahar, a British soldier was killed in a blast while taking part in a vehicle-mounted patrol in the northern part of the provincial airport, Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Wednesday's death took to 265 the total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Meanwhile, the Afghan defence ministry announced Thursday the start of a new operation, dubbed Omed, a local word for 'hope,' to be conducted by Afghan and NATO forces throughout the country.

'The operation is planned for 18 months and it will take place throughout the country and in all corners of Afghanistan,' General Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, told a press conference in Kabul.

'The operation will be led throughout the country by Afghan national army forces,' he said, adding that the new operation would cover all other offensives in the country including a major NATO action currently underway in southern Afghanistan.

Operation Omed effectively began when 15,000 Afghan and NATO personnel started Operation Mushtarak, a Dari word for 'together' in Marjah, a town in the southern province of Helmand, nearly two weeks ago. Mushtarak is the biggest NATO offensive since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The duration of the new operation resembles a plan by the US government to draw down the number of its forces in the country. US President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 additional troops for Afghanistan in December, but also set an 18-month timetable for the start of the US military withdrawal from the county that is due to begin in summer 2011.

With new troops coming from the US and other countries in the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, there are to be around 150,000 international personnel in the country by summer.