US soldier killed in Afghan clash

KABUL—An American soldier was killed in a firefight with suspected Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan on Thursday, the U.S. military said.
The clash occurred in the restive southern province of Kandahar as Afghan and U.S. troops were conducting a joint combat patrol, the U.S. military said in a statement. One militant was killed, while one U.S. soldier and an Afghan soldier were wounded. Other militants fled after American aircraft pounded their positions, the U.S. military said. Nearly 60 American soldiers have been killed in Taliban attacks this year, the bloodiest period for U.S.-led troops since they overthrew the Taliban government in late 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden. Also on Thursday, the U.S. military released 47 suspected Taliban prisoners, the latest in a series of releases aimed at coaxing members of the insurgent group to give up their fight.
Many of those released had been arrested in the south and east of the country where the Taliban are most active, former President Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, the head of a government peace commission, told a news conference. The prisoners, aged between 20 and 50, were freed from the U.S. military’s main base at Bagram north of Kabul and all appeared at the news conference at Mojadeddi’s offices in Kabul. Many former prisoners have accused the U.S. military of ill-treatment while in detention but most, though not all, of those who appeared at the news conference said they had been treated well. “They were very harsh,” said former prisoner Mohammad Qalandari. He did not elaborate. More than 300 prisoners have been released from U.S. detention centers in Afghanistan this year since President Hamid Karzai said Taliban fighters who gave up their insurgency could return to society.—Agencies