Anti-Taliban Operation Launched In Eastern Afghanistan

U.S. and Afghan troops on patrol in Paktika Province (file photo) (AFP) September 16, 2006 -- U.S.-led coalition forces say 7,000 U.S. and Afghan troops today launched a large-scale anti-Taliban operation in five Afghan provinces.

A coalition statement said that Operation Mountain Fury is targeting the central and eastern provinces of Ghazni, Khost, Lowgar, Paktika, and Paktiya.

Meanwhile, officials in the western provinces of Farah and Nimroz are calling for troop reinforcements to cope with a rising number of attacks there.

Provincial officials say the spike in attacks in Farah and Nimroz are due to Taliban who have arrived from southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, where thousands of NATO troops are conducting another anti-Taliban operation.

In central Afghanistan, police say that a bomb in the Musayi district of Kabul Province killed at least three people on September 16.

(AFP, AP)