60 Taliban killed in Southern Afghanistan battles
US-led coalition forces and Afghan troops clashed with militants in two separate battles in southern Afghanistan, killing more than 60 suspected Taliban, officials said today.
Coalition forces and Afghan troops yesterday attacked a cluster of buildings in Helmand province that militants had been using to launch attacks, triggering a 12-hour gun battle.
“Coalition air support dropped two bombs on the compounds with the greatest concentration of insurgents,” a coalition statement said. “Both compounds produced significant secondary explosions immediately suggesting a large quantity of explosive material was present in each.”
More than fifty Taliban were killed in the clash and a number of others were wounded, the coalition said.
The clash happened near the village of Musa Qala, where a peace deal struck last year with local elders effectively ceded control of the area to Taliban fighters. Militants use the village and surrounding areas as a staging ground for raids against Afghan and foreign troops.
The most recent attack, using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers on a coalition patrol, triggered the assault on the militant compound. A coalition soldier broke his hand during the engagement, it said.
“They are using Musa Qala as a base of support and it is believed that they will stay and defend the area rather than use their normal hit-and-run tactics,” the coalition said.
In neighbouring Kandahar province’s Maruf district, Afghan troops clashed with Taliban for three hours on Wednesday, leaving 10 suspected militants and one policemen dead, said Sayed Afghan Saqib, Kandahar provincial police chief.
Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan in the past two months. More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
