Afghan and NATO troops backed by helicopter gunships launched a massive “clean-up” operation Wednesday to drive Taleban from villages near Kandahar, leaving 36 rebels dead. The huge offensive came as militants killed six Nato soldiers and wounded 10. Four of the troops killed were British, including the country's first female casualty in Afghanistan. Two soldiers were killed in the east, where the US operates. Clashes broke out and helicopters swooped low overhead as Canadian armored vehicles pushed into the southern district of Arghandab, considered by the militants as a major prize in their increasingly bloody insurgency. Hundreds of Taleban swarmed into Arghandab late Monday and blew up bridges and laid landmines, just days after a mass jailbreak from nearby Kandahar's main prison that embarrassed the government of President Hamid Karzai. A Taleban spokesman said the militia wanted to capture the district in order to launch attacks on Kandahar itself – the southern city where the Taleban first rose to power in the 1990s. Canadian troops were seen driving armored vehicles through Arghandab, a lush area surrounded by pomegranate orchards, while two helicopters swooped very low overhead and dropped flares. Sporadic gunfire could be heard from nearby villages. Afghan defense ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the “clean-up operation started in Arghandab district” at 8:00 am (0330 GMT). In Kandahar province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said more than 20 Taleban fighters were killed in Tabin and 16 killed in Khohak, two villages in Arghandab. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed, the ministry said in a statement. Twelve other militants were killed in Maiwand, a separate district in Kandahar province. General Carlos Branco, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, confirmed that military helicopters had “engaged” the rebels but said no fixed-wing aircraft had dropped bombs. NATO's spokesman Mark Laity said the operation was “proceeding satisfactorily.”
