Hundreds of French and U.S. troops have launched a major anti-Taliban offensive in a valley in eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban killed 10 French soldiers last year, said officials on Thursday.
The operation, code-named 'Septentrion', targets Taliban positions in the Uzbin Valley east of Kabul. The offensive is being led by some 800 French legionaries and also involves several dozens of U.S troops and Afghan soldiers.
Taliban fighters responded to the coalition offensive by firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine gun. This prompted the coalition troops to call in air support. Military officials said that at least one Taliban fighter was killed and other militants were wounded in the offensive.
Military officials said later that five U.S. soldiers were injured in the fighting, three of them seriously. The wounded soldiers were airlifted to Bagram air base for treatment.
A spokesman for the French military said Thursday that the operation began Wednesday night that is aimed at restoring the Afghan government's control over the area. The offensive is indicated to have come after weeks of negotiations with local leaders.
The Uzbeen Valley is a stronghold of the Taliban. Ten French soldiers were killed in the area in August 2008 when they were ambushed by Taliban fighters. The ambush also left another 21 French soldiers wounded, making it the deadliest attack on French troops in Afghanistan.
France currently has some 4000 troops deployed in Afghanistan, and has said that it will consider increasing its troop levels in the war torn country only after the January 28 international conference in London on Afghanistan.
Presently, there are some 110,000 foreign troops from more than 42 countries in Afghanistan under the commands of the NATO and the United States, fighting Taliban insurgents. U.S. is the biggest contributor to the coalition forces in Afghanistan, with about 70,000 troops on the ground.
Further, U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged 30,000 additional American troops for fighting a resurgent Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Other NATO allies are also expected to contribute more than 5,000 new troops to the international force in the war-torn south-west Asian country.
With the re-enforcements pledged recently, the international coalition will have more than 140,000 troops to fight an estimated 25,000 Taliban insurgents operating in the war-ravaged country. In addition, the Afghan army is planning to increase its troop strength to 134,000 from the existing 94,000. The military operations in Afghanistan are also backed by a 93,000-strong Afghan police force.
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