South Asia News

1ST LEAD : Over 100 Taliban killed in latest clashes in Afghanistan

May 19, 2007, 10:59 GMT

Kabul - Afghan and coalition forces killed over 100 suspected Taliban in separate clashes in the past 48 hours in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday.

The firefight took place in Samkanai district of Paktia province on Friday afternoon and lasted until late evening, Abdul Rahman Sarjang, provincial police chief, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

He said that the operation which was carried out jointly by Afghan police, army and coalition forces resulted in the death of some 70 Taliban included Chechen, Arab and Pakistani fighters. One policeman was also killed, Sarjang said.

General Murad Ali, deputy army commander for the eastern region, said that 65 different types of weapons were also seized by the joint forces. Ali said the operation was conducted after the joint Afghan border police and coalition forces came under fire by Taliban fighters.

Coalition forces also said in a statement that their joint patrol with Afghan forces was ambushed by a group of insurgents in Paktia province, near the Pakistani border.

During the eight-hour clash in which air support was also called in, several Taliban were killed, the statement said, without giving any figures.

In a separate clash, Afghan and coalition forces killed at least 20 Taliban in in the northern province of Kapisa on Friday, provincial governor Abdul Satar Murad told dpa.

Murad said that the gun-battle erupted after the Taliban fighters attacked a convoy of Afghan police and coalition forces in the Taqab area.

The US military also said in a statement that several dozen Taliban were killed in Kapisa province in a coalition airstrike on Friday after the militants attacked a joint convoy of Afghan and coalition forces in the Al Asay area.

Some 14 suspected Taliban were killed and 10 others wounded in a coalition airstrike that destroyed a convoy of seven vehicles in the Bakwa district of western Farah province on Thursday, provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib said.

He said that the militants had been on their way to introduce a new commander in the area at the time of the air raid.

Taliban-led insurgents have intensified their activities after a reduction in violence during the winter. The militancy so far this year has left over 1,400 people dead, most of them insurgents.