Taliban Militants Seize Afghan Town

Taliban militants overran a southern Afghan town where a contentious peace agreement was negotiated last fall, roaming through the town center, burning its government compound and threatening elders, officials and a resident said.

A resident of Musa Qala said that 200-300 Taliban fighters had overtaken the town, took weapons from the police and destroyed the government center late Thursday.

Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said an "unknown number" of militants had apparently entered Musa Qala and that NATO had conflicting reports that tribal elders were temporarily taken hostage.

British forces are based in Helmand province but left Musa Qala in October after a peace agreement was signed between local elders and the Helmand governor. According to the deal, security was turned over to local leaders, while NATO forces were prevented from entering the town.

Some Western officials complained that the deal put the area, which had been a center for clashes between British troops and resurgent Taliban militants, outside of government and NATO control.

Asadullah Wafa, the governor of Helmand province, said the militants came into the town Wednesday, disarmed the police force and then returned Thursday and destroyed part of the compound housing the district's governor and police.

"People have closed down the shops this morning and those living near the area have moved out of fear," he said.

Mohammad Wali, a resident of Musa Qala who estimated that between 200-300 fighters were in town, said residents feared fighting between NATO and militants would resume.

Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply in the last year. Some 4,000 people died in insurgency-related violence last year, according to a count by The Associated Press based on numbers from Afghan, NATO and U.S. officials.

In western Afghanistan, militants attacked border police from three directions, officials said. Gen. Abdul Rahman, head of Afghanistan's border police, said 12 militants died in the subsequent clashes. Gen. Mohammad Daud Ahmadi, a border police official in Farah province, said 25 were killed. Police sent reinforcements, and NATO also sent fighter aircraft to the scene, Ahmadi said.

U.S.-led coalition troops, meanwhile, said they spotted a group of militants setting up rockets in eastern Paktika province and called in air strikes. Aircraft dropped two bombs, killing as many as seven militants, the statement said.

At the U.S. base at Bagram, Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez took command of U.S. troops in Afghanistan as part of a routine rotation that has seen the bulk of 10th Mountain Division troops replaced by soldiers from the 82nd Airborne.

Afghans "have endured tough times in the past, and we're here to help," Rodriguez told several hundred people gathered at the base for a change-of-command ceremony.

The outgoing commander, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, said Afghanistan still faces a "strong threat" from the Taliban and other militant groups, but that fighters have been weakened in the last year.

"I think the bigger parts of this insurgency do not have legs beneath it," Freakley said. "But it is not gone. There's going to be fighting for another few years. They're not going to give up."

Meanwhile, a plan to grant an amnesty to warlords and others accused of war crimes in a quarter-century of bloodshed in Afghanistan came under criticism Friday from the United Nations human rights chief.

The measure, passed by the Afghan parliament Wednesday and aimed at promoting national reconciliation, could lead to warlords who committed serious war crimes going unpunished, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said.

"Those responsible for serious human rights violations must be brought to justice," said Arbour. "Experience has shown time and again that effective and durable national reconciliation must be based on respect for international human rights standards and the rule of law, and must not come at their expense."

The parliamentary resolution, which said "all opponents ... should forgive each other and they should not be dealt with through legal and judicial channels," stands in contrast to a peace plan launched by President Hamid Karzai in December that foresees no amnesty for war crimes, crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations.

"The voices of the victims must be heard and they have spoken out clearly for the culture of impunity in Afghanistan to end," Arbour said.