Kabul - hundreds of insurgents attacked checkpoints Afghan police in a northeastern province remote Tuesday with AK-47s and rockets but failed to invade the positions of the Government, officials said.
The assault in Nuristan, a rugged and mountainous, zone Pakistan province, is the second attack Taliban significantly on the forces of the Government of Afghanistan in less than four days and is part of the spring offensive both expected insurgents.
The effectiveness of the campaign of the Taliban can influence the size of drawdown expected the President Barack Obama of US troops in July, the scale which military officials have said will depend on conditions on the ground.
The Nuristan province police chief GEN Shams-ul Rahman Zahid, said about 400 Taliban fighters have launched their assault at dawn, hitting the forefront of the Government security around reserve police units housing database some 11 miles (18 km) South of the Parun provincial capital.
Tapered Nigerians just before nightfall the night with police always in control of the four checkpoints, which had been reinforced by the police more Parun, said.
Zahid declined to say how many police had come under attack or size of the forces based in Nuristan, even if it is considered to be small. He acknowledged asking NATO and the Afghan army for help.
Spokesman for the Taliban Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
In Kabul, the Afghan army said that it would not send reinforcements, while NATO claimed to know nothing about these attacks. There are a few coalition or Afghan army troops in mountainous Nuristan, near the Pakistani border.
The Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, said that the army was aware that "hundreds of insurgents" had attacked the police forces of Nuristan but had no intention to send troops in the immediate area. He said that did not have more details because there is no force in the region.
Asked why he did not send troops, Azimi said that at this stage the police was holding still their soil. He said that the Afghan army has no troops stationed in Nuristan because there no available staff to cover remote areas.
The American commander in charge of the region contested of the number of attacking the Taliban but said the United States sent a UAV unmanned in the area to verify the situation.
Speaking from Bagram Air Base, major-General John Campbell said a press conference in the Pentagon in the year, that he was there, "" we have never seen... mass 400 insurgents. ""
The Taliban launched the first major strike in its campaign of spring over the weekend in the city of Kandahar, birthplace of the movement and attack the economic pole in the South of the Afghanistan, hitting the city government buildings in a frontal. At least two dozen insurgents, two members of the Afghan security forces and a civilian were killed in two days of fighting in the city.
The Taliban and other rebel groups control large areas of Nuristan, Kunar and other provinces in the Northeast near the Pakistani border. Insurgents retain the sanctuary areas tribal lawless neighbouring Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan to attack the NATO troops.
Hizb-i-Islami, a militant group composed of loyalists of regional warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also has a strong presence in the region. They are not designed to take part in attacks. The region also has smaller ultra-conservative Salafi groups.
Zahid said that he had intelligence that the strikes were conducted by Pakistanis and Arabs who have been crossing the border in Afghanistan.
The Taliban control also the tiny capital of the district Waygal rugged Nuristan, which they invaded with more than 300 fighters on March 29 and the white flag of the Emirate of Afghanistan - as the country was known when he was under the control of the Taliban before the invasion of 2001 us. Zahid said they also directly control half of the Kamdesh district.
"Unfortunately Waygal is still under control of the Taliban.". We look forward to the Ministry of the Interior to give us. We did not act to take back after it collapsed, "he says.
Violence also continued in other parts of the Afghanistan. NATO said Tuesday that three of its service members were killed by bombs, a Tuesday, in the East and two Monday in the South. France confirmed one of the soldiers was French, and the other two were Romanian, said their Government. Seven NATO soldiers died this month, and 158 had been killed since the beginning of the year.
In the southern province of Zabul, the Afghan Defence Ministry said one of its commando units killed five insurgents, including two Pakistani. He also said two foreign armed, a French and a Moroccan were held "with ammunition, weapons, military equipment and letters of propaganda."
He provided no other information on both foreigners.
In the East of the Paktika, Office of the provincial Governor said six insurgents were killed and another eight captured in the operation of the Afghan police.
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