KABUL, July 4, (AFP): Afghan authorities said Sunday that they killed more than 60 rebels in raids against Taleban militants and their drug-trafficking backers in a restive part of southern Afghanistan.
More than 16 tonnes of drugs — mostly opium — were also seized in Bahramcha district of Helmand province, centre of a Taleban-led insurgency and Afghanistan’s biggest poppy-growing region, the interior ministry said.
“Sixty-three terrorists were killed,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to Taleban-linked insurgents.
“The operation was successfully completed today (Sunday),” the statement said.
Two factories for converting opium into heroin were destroyed and “a large number” of weapons and ammunition were also seized in the raids, begun Friday by Afghan counternarcotics commandos supported by Nato troops, it added.
The commandos also freed 10 villagers captured by rebels for allegedly working with the government while arresting 10 rebels and drugs traffickers, the statement said.

War-ravaged Afghanistan is the world’s largest heroin producer, with annual exports worth up to three billion dollars helping fuel its Islamist insurgency. US General David Petraeus formally took up his new role of commander of the Afghan war during a ceremony Sunday at Nato headquarters in capital Kabul, saying the campaign faced “a critical moment”.
In the ceremony, colours of US and Nato forces were handed to him by General Egon Ramms, Commander of Nato’s Joint Forces Command Brunssum, marking his assumption of command over the 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Wearing fatigues and addressing a small crowd of Afghan military, civilian VIPs and diplomats, Petraeus reiterated his call for a united effort against the Taleban-led insurgency in the country.
“We have arrived at a critical moment. We must demonstrate to Al-Qaeda and its network of extremist allies that they will not be allowed to establish safe havens in Afghanistan from which they can launch attacks,” he said.
Petraeus arrived in Kabul Friday to take over the Nato’s 47-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from US General Stanley McChrystal, sacked last month by President Barack Obama for insubordination.
“We are engaged in a battle of wills,” he said. “We must demonstrate to the people of Afghanistan and the Taleban that ISAF and Nato forces are here to safeguard the Afghan people and we are in this to win. That is our objective.”
On Saturday the four-star general made his public debut as commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, at a reception at the US embassy in Kabul to mark the Fourth of July American Independence Day. He then met Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“I told President Karzai yesterday that I applaud his commitment to inclusivity, transparency, integrity, and accountability,” Petraeus said Sunday.
The president’s office said the pair spoke about corruption concerns after billions of dollars in US aid was blocked last week in the wake of a report that cash for Afghanistan was being siphoned and leaving on commercial flights.
Karzai rejected the graft allegations as “baseless”, his office said, yet added that both he and Petraeus agreed “anti-corruption was the main part of the war against terrorism and emphasised cooperation to reduce it”.
Observers have said Petraeus faces a tricky task to bring peace and secure a face-saving exit for allied troops fighting the Taleban.
He arrives as the deaths of US and Nato soldiers are touching record highs in intensified fighting, along with questions about the wisdom of committing huge resources in manpower and money to what could yet be a lost cause.
His appointment as commander of international forces in Afghanistan has been welcomed by local officials, including Karzai, who is increasingly seen in the West as a loose cannon.
“The biggest challenge for David Petraeus is the Afghan government and president Karzai himself,” said political analyst Haroun Mir.
“If the Afghan government does not collaborate, if president Karzai does not own this war, then it will be very difficult for Petraeus to improve the situation.”