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| Afghanistan |
| 4 Afghan troops among 10 killed in fresh violence |
| 2007-04-11 |
| US warplanes killed four Taliban rebels in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday, as four Afghan soldiers, a policeman and a militant died in other violence. Troops from the US-led coalition and the Afghan army called in jets after insurgents attacked them with rocket-propelled grenades in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province late on Monday, a coalition statement said. “Coalition close air support was requested and fired on the enemy-occupied compound. As Taliban fighters began to flee, coalition aircraft engaged and killed four Taliban fighters who were attempting to escape,” it said. There were no civilian casualties, it said. The coalition said in a separate statement it had arrested an “anti-coalition militia commander” teaching the use of roadside bombs early on Tuesday in a raid with Afghan police in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Meanwhile dozens of Taliban militants ambushed an Afghan army convoy with rockets in southern Zabul province on Monday, killing four troops and injuring 19, Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. The soldiers came under fire as they returned to Qalat, the capital city of Zabul province, from an operation in a nearby village, Azimi said. He said the Taliban also sustained casualties, but his ministry had no figures. Azimi had earlier said the incident happened on Tuesday. He clarified that it was also the same incident as one on Monday that was reported separately by the army’s southern commander, who said that two troops had been killed. Also on Monday Taliban fighters opened fire on a police vehicle in the southern city of Kandahar, sparking a gunbattle in which a policeman and an insurgent were killed, Kandahar police chief Esmatullah Alizai said. |
| Posted by:Fred |