Taliban Kandahar Battle

On June 23, 2008, five days after the start of an effort to remove Taliban fighters from a strategic area north of Kandahar, spokesmen for Afghan forces announced that the area was stable.¹ The insurgents, many of whom were thought to have escaped from a Kandahar jail in the week prior to the battle, were reportedly routed by Afghan, NATO and Canadian troops.²

Fast Facts

1. 100 Taliban fighters confirmed dead³
2. 29 captured
3. Reports: 300-600 Taliban involved
4. Hundreds had broken out of jail
5. At least 2 Afghan troops killed
6. Over 700 families had fled the area⁴
7. Governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khaled: Hundreds of militants killed and wounded²

Strategic Area

The fighting took place in the Arghandab district, an agricultural area whose orchards are said to provide ample cover for insurgents⁵—a fact borne out by the heavy casualties suffered there by the Soviets in the 1980s.⁶

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