Over 40 Taliban killed

KABUL—Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed more than 40 insurgents in a 12-hour battle in a restive southern province, taking the guerrilla death toll to nearly 200 in a fortnight, the U.S. military said on Thursday.
Suspected Islamist Taliban insurgents ambushed a coalition patrol in villages in Kandahar province’s Shah Wali Kot district with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. military said in a statement. Kandahar has been the site of repeated clashes in recent months.
“The extremist fighters were visually observed firing on the patrol from compounds located within the villages,” the statement said. “Throughout the engagement, insurgents reinforced their positions with an estimated 150 additional fighters. Coalition aircraft destroyed the positively identified enemy firing positions with precision guided munitions.” The Taliban said they were unaware of any ground fighting in the Shah Wali Kot district on Wednesday, but said they had downed an American helicopter in the area. “The chopper is completely burnt and everyone on board is dead,” Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location. “Whenever we blow up the Americans they claim such things to confuse the people.—Agencies