2 British soldiers and 15 Taliban killed in Helmand (Roundup)

Jul 5, 2009, 14:18 GMT

Kabul - Two British soldiers, two Afghan police and 15 Taliban fighters were killed during the ongoing massive NATO operation in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Sunday. Some 16 de-miners have also gone missing in the southeast.

The British military on Sunday confirmed that two of its soldiers were killed in Grish district the previous night. A soldier was killed when a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) hit an army vehicle during an operation, and the second one was killed due to an explosion.

The interior ministry in Kabul said two police and 15 Taliban fighters were also killed during the ongoing operation.

A statement from the interior ministry on Sunday said the casualties took place in Nahr Saraj district during the joint operation by NATO and Afghan forces. Five police, including a police officer, were wounded in the battle, said the statement.

Elsewhere in the southeastern Paktia province, 16 deminers working for a non-governmental organization, Mine Detection and Dog Centre (MDC), part of the overall UN mine clearing agency in Afghanistan known as UNMACA, have been missing since late Saturday.

Sher Agha Ahmadzai, regional coordinator for UNMACA for the South East, told the German Press Agency dpa the mine clearance workers were on a mission in the field. Their empty vehicles were found, but the deminers have been still missing from a site near the provincial capital Gardez, said Ahmadzai.

Paktia's security chief, Dastagir Rostamyar, said they believed the workers could have been kidnapped by criminal gangs.

No armed groups have yet claimed responsibility.

Also in the southeast, two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb blast in Paktia province on the main Kabul-Khost highway Sunday morning.

Rostamyar, said a patrol of the soldiers stepped on a bomb in Garda Sirai district.

In the neighbouring Khost province's Sabari district, a police officer was killed as he stepped on a bomb near his outpost late Saturday, according to the Sabari distirct chief Dawlat Qayomi.

In other developments, a terrorist who allegedly recruited Afghan children to serve as suicide bombers has been taken into custody, US officials reported Sunday.

The arrest was made south of the Afghan capital of Kabul. A second rebel sympathizer had been taken into custody the night before in operations in the province of Logar.

The two belonged to the Haqqani Network, considered to be 'one of the deadliest Taliban organizations' and had been active in the troubled Afghan area along the Pakistani border.

US-led coalition troops and Afghan soldiers participated in the mission.