World

Taliban capture Afghan district

The defense ministry said that Afghan commandos had reclaimed the district.

25 May,2011 05:45 pm

Hundreds of Taliban fighters attacked and briefly seized parts of a district in Afghanistans remote and mountainous northeast on Wednesday, provincial officials said, with gunfights raging for hours between insurgents and Afghan troops.Jamuladdin Badr, the governor of Nuristan province near the border with Pakistan, told Reuters the Duab district center had fallen into the hands of insurgents, but most of it was recaptured within hours by Afghan troops.Insurgents left 17 bodies on the battlefield, and were still fighting government forces on the outskirts of Duab in the late afternoon, he added. The defense ministry said that Afghan commandos had reclaimed the district.Many areas in Afghanistans rugged northeast are secured only by Afghan police, without Afghan or foreign troops, and insurgents sometimes overrun remote outposts only to be pushed back later when military reinforcements arrive.

Pakistan

Lahore