NATO, Taliban clash near Kabul

KABUL—NATO troops fought suspected Taliban insurgents northeast of Kabul on Saturday, Afghan and NATO officials said, in the first major encounter in the area since the strict Islamist group’s government was ousted in 2001.
NATO officials said the clash in the Tagab valley, 70 km (45 miles) from the capital, erupted after an alliance convoy was attacked while hunting insurgents in the area, just east of the main U.S. base at Bagram airfield. No further details were immediately available.
Speaking from a secret location, a Taliban spokesman said militants destroyed several NATO vehicles in the twisting valley, where rebel activity has picked up in recent weeks for the first time since a U.S.-led coalition overthrew the Taliban. NATO officials did not confirm the Taliban report.
NATO planes were called in to support the ground troops at the height of the fighting, which continued as evening fell. Fighting across Afghanistan is the worst since the Taliban government was overthrown. More than 3,100 people, about a third of them civilians, have been killed so far this year.
NATO assumed full command of Afghanistan’s security from the U.S.-led coalition last month, the biggest operation in its history.
Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy supplying logistics and goods to a US base in southeastern Afghanistan, killing two Pakistani drivers and wounding an Afghan, police said. Fighting across Afghanistan is the worst since the Taliban government was overthrown. More than 3,100 people, about a third of them civilians, have been killed so far this year. The attackers opened fire on the two trucks from both sides of the road in a mountainous area of Khost province late Friday, the provincial police chief told on Saturday.
“Two Pakistani co-drivers were killed and one Afghan driver was wounded in an enemy attack on non-military trucks hired to supply goods for Americans,” General Abdul Hanan Raufi told. Raufi said the attack was carried out by Taliban insurgents who fled immediately afterwards. Police were searching for the killers, he said.
There have been several such attacks on convoys supplying bases for the 40,000 troops in Afghanistan, about half of whom are Americans. Taliban militants are using several tactics in their insurgency, with most of the violence targeted at Afghan and foreign troops and civilians who work with them or the government, including school teachers and mullahs.
The fighters also used suicide and roadside bombings, and have met with strong retaliation from foreign and Afghan forces. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the violence, about two-thirds of them rebels.—Agencies