Taliban forced back in Kandahar offensive

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan and NATO forces have pushed the Taliban out of several villages in southern Afghanistan they claimed to have seized, the governor of Kandahar province said Thursday.

More than 100 Taliban fighters were killed or wounded in the operation, said Gov. Assadullah Khalid, and many others have fled.

Hundreds of Taliban militants streamed into several villages in Kandahar days ago, after 400 militants escaped from prison in a daring and well-executed jailbreak.

In response, NATO aircraft dropped hundreds of leaflets advising residents to stay inside and saying that troops were "coming to remove the enemies of Afghanistan." Then military convoys rolled into the district.

Afghan soldiers and police, along with NATO-led forces, started the military operation Wednesday. At least 34 militants were killed and another 60 wounded in the early stages of the assault, Afghan police said.

"This clearing operation is a response to a direct Taliban threat to the people of Arghandab district, where insurgents have forced hundreds of innocent Afghans to flee their homes," read a statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Watch NATO troops launch their operation near Kandahar. »

Locals said the Taliban had seized from five to 13 villages, but an ISAF spokesman said reports of militants overrunning villages was Taliban "propaganda precisely to scare people."

The villages are about 12 miles (20 km) north of Kandahar, near the prison. Kandahar province is where the Taliban first rose to power and where it made its last stand before being toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001.

In an earlier operation, two Afghan soldiers and at least 23 militants were killed Wednesday during an attempt to flush rebels out of several villages in the south of the country, the Afghan defense ministry said.

Afghan troops, backed by Canadian forces, targeted villages in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, where 400 militants escaped from prison in a jailbreak Friday.

On Tuesday four British soldiers were in a separate operation in Lashkar Gah, also in southern Afghanistan.

And in another incident on Wednesday, two NATO-led soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during a patrol in southeastern Afghanistan. The incident occurred in the Paktika province, the alliance force said without releasing the nationalities of these troops. Watch as Taliban makes comeback »

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said thousands of soldiers and police officers -- with reinforcements from the capital city of Kabul -- began moving into Arghandab Wednesday morning.

"This clearing operation is a response to a direct Taliban threat to the people of Arghandab district, where insurgents have forced hundreds of innocent Afghans to flee their homes," a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. "The operation is expected to be completed within the next three days."

The two Afghan soldiers were killed in a gun battle with three Taliban fighters, the defense ministry said. A NATO air raid in the district killed 20 other militants, the ministry said.

Even with the operation under way, NATO said it had seen no evidence of an increased Taliban presence in the region.

"The scale of the challenge is currently unknown," ISAF spokesman Mark Laity said. "What we failed to find is the large grouping [of militants] that some people claimed."

Laity said the reports of militants overrunning villages was Taliban "propaganda precisely to scare people."

Throughout the night and into early Wednesday morning, residents reported seeing row upon row of military convoys moving into the district. As the operation got under way, planes and helicopters buzzed overhead.

Local elders said hundreds of militants streamed into the villages late Sunday night on motor bikes and pickups. Then, in apparent preparation for an impending military operation, they planted mines, destroyed bridges and forced villagers to stay and fight alongside them, a tribal elder said.

Journalist Farhad Peikar contributed to this report

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