At least two Afghan soldiers and two suspected Taliban militants were killed in clashes near the Pakistani border on Monday, and aircraft from U.S.-led forces were circling over the area. Another soldier was killed on Sunday night when suspected Taliban militants opened fire from a motorcycle on a car being used for voter registration in the southern province of Helmand, officials said.
| Motorcyles Of Doom strike again! |
The fighting south of Khost, in the district of Gurbuz just a few kilometres (miles) from the Pakistan border, lasted for more than eight hours. "Two Afghan soldiers were wounded and two killed, and on the Taliban side we found two dead bodies and captured one," General Khialbaz Sherzai, commander of the Afghan army's 25th Division, told Reuters. He said the captured militant appeared to be a foreigner, possibly of Arab extraction.
| "Say, ya'll ain't from around these parts!" |
Sherzai said his forces saw dozens of wounded militants crossing into Pakistan, where members of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban as well as foreign militants with links to al Qaeda are said to be active.
| Wounded, sepsis, slow-painful lingering death.... |
| Gut shot... Sucking chest woonds... Sucking head wounds... I like it! |
| Too bad for Mahmoud that all the better Pakistani docs emigrated to America; I bet that sucking chest wound could have been fixed. |
| And then they bumped off all the leftovers because they were Shiites. That's planning ahead... |
Pakistan denies Afghan accusations that its territory is being used as a sanctuary by militants.
Taliban official Mullah Abdul Samad said U.S. aircraft were involved in the fighting, and eyewitnesses said they were flying over the area an hour or so after the clash ended. The drive-by shooting in Helmand's provincial capital of Lashkar Gah was the latest in a series of attacks on election workers in Afghanistan. The two gunmen carrying AK-47s escaped on a motorcycle, said Haji Mohammad Wali, spokesman for the Helmand governor.
More details here: More than 100 Afghan and American troops supported by U.S. warplanes clashed with 50 militants near the Pakistani frontier Monday, inflicting "heavy losses" on the rebels in the fiercest border skirmish in months, the U.S. military said. An Afghan commander said the fight began when the militants attacked a border post near Zhawara, 40 miles south of Khost city, early on Monday morning. Maj. Rick Peat, an American spokesman, said U.S.-led troops and more than 100 Afghan militia soldiers engaged the militants at about 2 a.m. A B1 bomber, two A-10 ground-attack aircraft and four Cobra helicopter gunships provided support.
| When you care enough to send the very best! |
"The militants retreated in panic and were pursued by the attack aircraft," Peat said.
| "Feet, don't fail me now!" |
Gen. Khial Baz, the provincial military commander, said four Afghan soldiers were wounded. However, Peat said only two were hurt and that they were evacuated to a hospital for treatment. Four hours later, U.S. and Afghan forces, supported A-10s, fought about 20 of the militants in a renewed battle. "Again, the militants retreated after incurring heavy losses," Peat said. One Afghan soldier was killed and three others wounded in the second clash, he said. He didn't give a specific figure for the rebel deaths.
| Still counting body parts |
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