Two international soldiers among 31 killed in Afghanistan (Roundup)

Apr 28, 2007, 12:19 GMT

Kabul - Afghan and international forces killed at least 29 suspected Taliban fighters in separate clashes in southern and eastern Afghanistan, while two international soldiers died in separate incidents, officials said on Saturday.

A group of Taliban militants attacked the district headquarters of Alisher district in eastern Khost province on the early hours of Saturday but Afghan police forces repelled the attack 'forcefully,' provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

'The NATO Air Force engaged the militants from the air as the militants were taking their dead and wounded comrades while retreating from the are area,' Ayoub said.

'Fourteen Taliban dead bodies were left on the site and were transported to the provincial hospital,' he said.

He said two policemen were slightly wounded in the firefight.

NATO military spokeswoman Colonel Angela Billings confirmed the incident and said that their air support was involved in an incident after 1:00 am on Saturday in which some Taliban militants were killed but could not provide any figures.

The attack on Alisher district came a day after another attack on Giro district of southern Ghazni province on Thursday night that killed the district administrative and police chiefs along with three other policemen.

Mohammad Zaman, deputy provincial police chief, talking from the centre of Giro district via telephone to dpa, said that hundreds of Afghan forces moved into the district late Friday, and the complete area was under Afghan control.

Meanwhile, Afghan and US-led Coalition forces killed ten Taliban militants and destroyed two buildings in an air and ground engagement early Saturday morning in southern Helmand Province, US military said in a statement.

The firefight triggered after the combined forces' convoy was ambushed by militants in the vicinity of Gereshk district, the statement said, adding that the Coalition forces fought back from the ground and employed close air support.

Five more Taliban fighters were killed and another five were arrested when their hideout was raid by Afghan and coalition in southern Zabul province on Friday, a separate statement by US military said.

'Credible information led the Coalition to the compound suspected of sheltering local Taliban leadership connected to Mullah Dadullah Lang.

These militants are suspected of weapons smuggling and planning attacks on Coalition forces and peaceful Afghans in the area,' it said.

No Afghan or coalition soldiers were hurt during the raid, it added.

A soldier with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was found dead in his barracks on Friday, ISAF said in a statement.

The statement did not identify the soldier nor did it say the cause of death, but Billings said that it was a 'non-combat incident.'

Early Friday, a US-led coalition soldier was killed when his unit engaged with suspected Taliban militants in western Herat province, the US military said in a statement.

'Coalition forces employed a variety of combined arms to include close air support to destroy and repel enemy insurgents during the firefight,' the statement said, but it did not say if any Taliban militants were killed during the fighting.

The names and nationalities of both the deceased soldiers were not disclosed, pending the notification of their next of kin, the statements said.

In recent weeks, the insurgency has increased in the east while the southern region continues to be the most volatile due the strong presence of the Taliban.

Over 1,000 people, mostly insurgents, but also including Afghan and international forces, have been killed since the beginning of the year.