64 Taliban-Led Rebels Killed in Fighting

0505afghan-fightg Fierce battles between U.S.-led coalition forces and Taliban-led militants have left about 64 rebels dead, the U.S. military said Thursday, the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months. Nine Afghan troops and a policeman were also killed.

Seven U.S. soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which began Tuesday. American warplanes and helicopters pounded bands of militants in clashes in Zabul and Kandahar, two restive provinces in the south of the country.

The Afghan troops died when insurgents ambushed their patrol near Spin Ghar in Kandahar province on Wednesday evening, the worst-ever loss for the new U.S.-trained army, the Defense Ministry said.

A U.S. spokesman, Lt. Cindy Moore, said the troops were killed after climbing out of their trucks. Allied warplanes were called in to help them, and 20 militants were killed in the ensuing battle, Moore said.

"There was an estimated 20 killed in action," Moore said, adding that another six militants were detained.

Three Afghan troops and an American soldier embedded with the unit were injured, she said.

The U.S. military also more than doubled the death toll from a clash the previous day in neighboring Zabul province, saying that 44 militants as well as an Afghan policeman had died in several hours of fighting in an area that has seen repeated large-scale fighting.

The militants killed Tuesday were a "mix of Taliban and anti-coalition militants" who appeared well-armed and disciplined, U.S. spokesman Col. James Yonts said. "They didn't flee, they stood and fought."

Ali Khail, spokesman for Zabul province's governor, said documents found on dead militants showed two were Chechens and one was Pakistani, but U.S. officials wouldn't release their nationalities, saying it might benefit their enemy.

The military had previously said 20 militants died in the battle in Zabul's remote Dehchopan district, about 205 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul. The toll rose to 44 after troops found more bodies.

Yonts said four of the six Americans hurt in that battle were taken to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. Five Afghan police were wounded.

Zabul and Kandahar lie along the Afghan border with Pakistan, in an area where Taliban-led militants opposed to the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai have revived their three-year-old insurgency after a winter lull.

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said at a news conference Thursday that more than 100 militants and at least 12 Afghan police had been killed in the past month - excluding most of the latest casualties. Several civilians, as well as one U.S. and one Romanian soldier, have also died.

The latest fighting coincided with the installation of a new commander of the 18,000-strong U.S.-led coalition, who said Tuesday he would be "relentless" in battling the insurgency.

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said he would maintain the approach of bolstering Afghanistan's government while continuing the battle against militants and their leaders - including Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar.

The number killed on Tuesday was the highest since Aug. 2 last year, when Afghan troops and U.S. warplanes killed up to 70 militants in a daylong battle in the southeastern province of Khost.

Khost is across from Pakistan's Waziristan area, where militants - including foreign fighters with al-Qaida links - are believed to have found refuge after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

BBC Report:

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Last Updated: Thursday, 5 May, 2005, 16:28 GMT 17:28 UK

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Afghan fighting 'leaves 70 dead'

Seventy people have been killed over the last three days in two clashes in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan and US authorities say.

Fighting in Zabul province left 40 fighters from the Taleban and its allies dead together with one Afghan policemen, the US military says.

And nine Afghan soldiers and 20 insurgents were killed in a clash in Kandahar province, the US says.

They are some of the heaviest clashes since the fall of the Taleban.

'Stood and fought'

There has been no word from the Talaben on the fighting.

The US military has been giving more details of the fighting throughout Thursday.

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Afghanistan

The clash in Zabul province took place on Tuesday in the Deh Chopan district.

Those killed were a "mix of Taleban and anti-coalition militants", US spokesman Col James Yonts told the Associated Press news agency.

"These were well-trained, well-armed people... not just a rogue group," he said, "and they didn't flee, they stood and fought."

Initially the US said that 20 militants were killed.

But on Thursday Col James Yonts said the number of dead has risen to 40 - the highest from a single battle in nine months - after troops examining the battle scene found more bodies.

The Americans say that they used warplanes and helicopter gunships in support of their troops on the ground.

Six US servicemen and five Afghan policemen were also injured.

The clash began when gunmen fired on coalition forces investigating the beating of a local man, the US said.

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali said that the fighting started when militants attacked three local doctors and police tried to free them. He said that the trio were subsequently "freed safely".

'Ambush'

The clash in Kandahar province took place on Wednesday.

The US says that the clashes have been fierce

In the first account, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman said nine Afghan soldiers were killed in an ambush by militants near the town of Spin Ghar.

Correspondents say that marks the worst losses suffered so far by the country's US-trained army. Three soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Later a US military spokeswoman said that planes from the US-led coalition that were called to help the soldiers kill 20 of the attackers.

The US has about 18,000 troops mainly in the south and east of Afghanistan.

BBC Links for background available:

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And from

www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-05 16:54:12

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Over 100 suspected terrorists killed in one month in Afghanistan

www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-05 16:54:12

KABUL, May 5 (Xinhuanet) -- Afghan law enforcing agencies backed by the US-led coalition force have killed over 100 suspected Taliban and their allied militants since early last month, Afghanistan's top security official said Thursday.

"More than 100 terrorists and insurgents have been killed in encounters with Afghan security personnel and coalition forces over the past one month," Ali Ahmad Jalali told reporters at a news conference here.

He also confirmed that most of these incidents had taken place in the restive south and southeastern provinces of the country where hundreds of Taliban fighters reportedly have been hiding.

He said "only 12 policemen had lost their lives in encounters with the terrorists during the period."

Remnants of the Taliban, whose regime was ousted in late 2001 have intensified their hit-and-run attacks since the inception of spring in which over 50 people, half of them, according to Taliban sources, Americans had been killed.

In the meantime, US military spokesman Cindy Moore said that onTuesday some 40 Taliban militias were killed in a fierce gun battle in the troubled Deh Chopan district of southern Zabul province.

She also confirmed the death of one Afghan police officer and injuries of 11 others including five Afghans and six US servicemen in the deadly engagement.

The south and southeastern mountainous provinces commonly known as the heartland of Taliban have been the scene of increasing insurgency for the last several months in the post-war nation. Enditem

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