Taliban flee battle using children as shields: NATO
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Taliban fighters used children as human shields to flee heavy fighting this week during an operation by foreign and Afghan forces to clear rebels from around a key hydro-electric dam, NATO said on Wednesday.
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Concern grows over the progress of operations against Taliban and its effects on the unity of Nato
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 18 -- Dozens of people have died in intense fighting in recent days as NATO-led forces have opened a new front in Afghanistan's volatile south, Afghan and international security officials said Monday.
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BRUSSELS - Under intense pressure from Taliban insurgents based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and short of the troops needed for victory, NATO again is pleading with member states to step up their commitments, casting the fight in Afghanistan as vital for global security.
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Afghanistan's NATO force warned Afghans  to keep clear of its convoys on Saturday after several  incidents in which troops fired at civilians in the mistaken  belief they were under attack by suicide bombers.
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NATO defense chiefs agreed on Friday  they must plug shortfalls in peacekeeping troops in  Afghanistan, an alliance spokesman said, after top NATO  officials conceded they had underestimated Taliban resistance.
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About 60 fleeing Taliban fighters were confirmed dead after their boat sank in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said Sunday as the NATO force announced another of its soldiers had died in action.
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NATO-led and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving 10 suspected militants dead, an Afghan army officer said.
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan  - Taliban fighters are continuing to reinforce a key southern town against an expected NATO offensive more than a week after taking it over, ending a controversial four month truce.
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Taliban militants seized two towns in tumultuous southern Afghanistan, forcing police and government officials to flee, officials said Monday.
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NATO and Afghan government forces have   forced Taliban troops out of a southern Afghan district after a   two-week operation in which NATO said hundreds of militants   were killed.
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NATO and Afghan forces killed dozens of   Taliban fighters in a major air and ground offensive in   southern Afghanistan, NATO said on Sunday, a day after 14   British military personnel were killed when their plane   crashed.
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Fighting between NATO-led forces and  insurgents across southern Afghanistan has displaced an  estimated 80,000 to 90,000 people over the past few months, the  U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.
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Hard-fought gains by NATO troops this year could be lost in coming months if Afghan forces fail to hold ground seized from the Taliban, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said in an interview broadcast on Thursday.
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Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Tuesday called on foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan and taunted NATO about its capture of the southern town of Musa Qala, saying celebrating such a small victory only showed its weakness.
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Taliban fighters killed three NATO soldiers in an attack in southern Afghanistan Thursday, a NATO spokesman said. The insurgents attacked the soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades near a school on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar, a NATO statement said.
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In its largest offensive yet, thousands of NATO troops moved Tuesday into the mountains of southern Afghanistan where hundreds of hardcore Taliban insurgents hold sway &#151; an operation in the world's biggest opium-producing region aimed at winning over a population long supportive of militant fighters.