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By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 19 minutes ago
SARTAK, Afghanistan - Security forces backed by U.S.-led coalition helicopters attacked a suspected Taliban hideout in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking an intense battle that killed 41 rebels and six police, a senior official said Saturday.
Afghanistan , sparking an intense battle that killed 41 rebels and six police, a senior official said Saturday.
(snip) "Our elders had asked them (Taliban) to go away because we knew that one day American helicopters will come and drop bombs," Faiz Ullah told The Associated Press in Sartak, a village surrounded by blooming opium poppy fields and the site of the heaviest fighting.
(snip) On Saturday, villagers returned to their homes and local children gathered shrapnel left over from the fighting. Three houses were badly damaged, and one local farmer, Mohammad Naseem, 40, moaned that his poppy crop was ruined because of a 16-foot-wide crater in the field.
(Opium production goes on even in the shadow of American war against Taliban)
America, what a country