Afghans flee as Taliban dig in for NATO raid
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SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan  - More than 1,000 villagers have fled a southern Afghan town as Taliban fighters dig in to repel NATO efforts to drive them out, residents and officials said on Wednesday.
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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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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Police fled a town in western Afghanistan yesterday and suspected Taliban militants briefly moved in -- the second time in a month that the government has lost control of a district in the area.
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Thousands of American and Afghan troops unleashed a new offensive against Taliban militants in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday in an effort to expand the government's reach into the volatile Pakistani border region.
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ISLAM QALA, Afghanistan  - Thousands of deported Afghan men are destined this week to trudge across the Iranian border into their impoverished homeland -- many of them determined to sneak back into Iran at the first opportunity.
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The commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Forces on Saturday said troops will "kick the Taliban out and defeat them" after Taliban forces took control in the southern Afghan district of Musa Qala overnight, shouldering out a locally raised force of auxiliary police loyal to the Afghan government.
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The Taliban will stage a "massive" operation against Western troops in Afghanistan and civilians must stay away from them in order to avoid casualties, a spokesman for the group said on Sunday.
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Afghan and coalition forces have kept up a hunt for rebels who briefly captured two southern districts last week, killing 13 Taliban in the latest strikes.
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Afghan and NATO forces launched a ground and air search operation Friday for an Afghan passenger jet carrying 104 people that disappeared from radar screens during a snowstorm near the mountain-ringed capital. Three Americans were believed to have been on board.
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Eased-up American military operations could persuade former Taliban militants to return home from countries such as Pakistan, the chief of the U.N. refugee agency said Saturday. Thousands of Taliban supporters fled to Pakistan and Iran &#151; many with their entire families &#151; when U.S. forces and Afghan anti-Taliban militias drove them from power in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.
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11 December 2004 -- The US military has begun a new operation in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants in their winter hideouts.
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NATO troops and helicopters searched on  Friday for an Afghan airliner missing for a day with 104 people  on board, including 13 foreigners, amid fears it may have  crashed after being turned away from Kabul in a snow storm.
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NATO military chief General Ray Henault pressed alliance member states to send men and equipment to Afghanistan, where NATO troops are battling a revived Taliban insurgency.
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Taliban and NATO troops fought battles in southern Afghanistan on Thursday as the alliance pressed ahead with its biggest offensive to quash the insurgents.
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KABUL, Dec 11: The US-led military in Afghanistan has kicked off a new operation to hunt Taliban militants in their winter stronghold and force them to accept an Afghan government reconciliation offer, a US military spokesman said on Saturday.
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Up to 90,000 Afghans have been displaced by fighting between NATO-led forces and Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan, the United Nations refugee agency has said.
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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.