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| Afghanistan |
| Four civilians, 17 Talibs killed in Afghanistan |
| 2008-06-12 |
| Four civilians and 17 Taliban were killed in an attack by US-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, while dozens more rebel casualties were reported elsewhere. Three women and a child were killed Tuesday when the US-led coalition targeted an insurgent hideout in Mata Khan district of Paktika province from the ground and the air, the force said in a statement. "Several militants were killed... Tuesday during a coalition forces operation to disrupt militant operations in Paktika province. The operation also resulted in four civilian deaths," the statement said. Another civilian was injured, it added. The coalition did not give a specific number of militant casualties but a spokesman for the provincial government, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, put the rebel death toll at 17. The coalition said one of the women was killed after the troops called in war planes to target militants who were firing on the troops from inside and outside the compound. "When coalition forces forcibly gained entry to the barricaded room, three Afghan women and one boy were wounded," it said, adding that the civilians later died from their injuries in a coalition medical facility. The operation was launched against two "militant leaders," one of whom was involved in improvised bomb attacks on international troops while the other was facilitating "foreign fighter operations," the coalition said. "Several armed militants engaged the force from inside one compound and were killed with small-arms fire," it added. In a separate incident early Wednesday, up to 60 Taliban militants were killed or injured when Afghan troops backed by NATO air support targeted them in the eastern province of Kunar, a provincial police chief said. The Kunar police chief, Abdul Jalal Jalalm, could not specifically say how many rebels had died or were injured but, "according to information 17 bodies were taken to Pakistan." "The Taliban had gathered in Sarkano district. We and the NATO forces targeted them from ground and air. About 60 Taliban were killed and injured," he told AFP. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed told AFP by telephone from an unknown location that nine rebels were slain, mostly in air strikes, but he said the movement also inflicted heavy casualties on the troops. His claims have proved to be exaggerated in the past. |
| Posted by:Fred |