But then here's another article:
18 rebels killed in Afghan
By BURT HERMAN - Associated Press
18 rebels killed in Afghan
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition troops and Afghan militia killed 18 rebel fighters during a six-hour firefight in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, calling in airstrikes to help repel the attackers, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
Six Afghan militiamen were wounded in the fighting that began Saturday morning, the coalition said in a statement. There were no coalition casualties.
U.S.-backed Afghan militia members were patrolling 27 miles south of a base in Shkin, a town in Paktika province, when they ran into as many as 25 anti-coalition fighters at 7:45 a.m., the military said. The coalition said a rapid reaction force from its Shkin base, 135 miles south of Kabul, was called in to reinforce the Afghan soldiers.
During an exchange of small-arms fire between the ground forces, A-10 Thunderbolt airplanes and Apache helicopters were called in for air strikes. One vehicle was destroyed and the surviving rebels retreated, the military said. It said "approximately 18 enemy personnel" were killed.
The clash was reported Monday by Afghan officials, but they gave conflicting accounts. Tuesday's statement was the first by the coalition on the incident.
Mohammed Ali Jalali, governor of Paktika province, said Tuesday that a separate battle Saturday in the province's Gomal district, about two miles from the Pakistan border, left 10 rebels dead -- including four Arabs.
The coalition statement didn't specify if the attackers Saturday were former Taliban or al-Qaida terrorists. Remnants of those forces -- ousted from power here in late 2001 by the U.S.-led coalition -- have mounted attacks in Afghanistan's border regions with Pakistan.
The remote regions on Afghanistan's frontier have poor communication links and transportation, a possible reason for the confused reports about the battles.
Last week, the U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping told the U.N. Security Council that deteriorating security in Afghanistan was a significant obstacle to reconstruction. He claimed that the Taliban have established "de-facto control" in certain border areas, including in Paktika province, site of Saturday's fighting.
The Afghan government strongly rejected the U.N. official's claims that the Taliban have taken control of border regions, and said threats to stability in the country shouldn't be exaggerated.