A U.S. soldier and a former Afghan militia leader were killed Sunday when American troops clashed with gunmen during a search operation in western Afghanistan, U.S. and Afghan officials said. The troops came under attack from "an unknown number of enemy forces" while searching a compound near Shindand Airfield in Herat province and returned fire, a U.S. military statement said. "The Afghan citizen died at the scene," the statement said. "The U.S. soldier was wounded in the attack and ... died a short time later at the airfield."
 The soldier's name was being withheld until his next of kin could be notified. The military also didn't identify the dead Afghan, or say if he was a suspected militant or a bystander. But a local militia commander, Akhtar Mohammed Husseini, said the compound belonged to a former militia leader called Mullah Dost. "There was fire from both sides. Mullah Dost was killed along with his wife, and two of their children were injured," Husseini told The Associated Press by telephone. "The Americans wanted to search his house, but we don't know who fired first." Ziauddin Mahmoudi, the provincial police chief, gave a slightly different account, saying Dost and one of his daughters were killed in the pre-dawn fight. Mahmoudi said Dost was a veteran of Afghanistan's war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s who later aligned with the Taliban. He said Dost also served briefly as police chief in Shindand district last year. |