US, Afghan troops inflict heavy Taliban losses

KABUL—US-led troops and Afghan security forces on Sunday killed a “significant” number of militants, the coalition said, a day after 15 Taliban were killed in attacks in the south.
The coalition did not give an exact toll but a local MP said the battle in eastern Nuristan province, in which warplanes were also deployed, left 20 people dead including some civilians.
“The combined force repelled the attack with accurate small-arms fire and crew-served weapons. During the long battle, the insurgents reinforced their positions in several compounds with large groups of fighters,” a statement by the US-led coalition said. It added that troops “inflicted significant insurgent losses” and that many rebels had been detained.
The statement said the fighters were members of Hizb-e-Islami, an outlawed militant group loyal to the former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is said to have joined the Taliban. It added that there were no civilian casualties.
The Afghan defence ministry also confirmed the operation, saying “the enemy suffered heavy casualties.” It said one Afghan soldier was killed and three others were injured in the fighting, which continued late Sunday. Local lawmaker Rahmatullah Rashidi, however, said civilians were also killed in the coalition airstrikes.
“There have been heavy airstrikes since last evening,” he said. “According to the information I received, about 20 people including fighters and civilians have been killed,” Rashidi told reporters. He said about 40 other people including civilians had been injured.
In another incident Sunday two security guards escorting a civilian convoy of trucks supplying a NATO base and two Taliban were killed in a firefight in the southern province of Ghazni, a district chief said, while police said a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province killed a policeman.
Earlier, the defence ministry said 15 Taliban insurgents were killed in separate raids by Afghan and NATO troops in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday. The interior ministry meanwhile said a senior Taliban commander whom it described as a deputy to Taliban top military commander Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was captured in Kandahar city. Mansoor Dadullah was captured in Pakistan in February.
The Taliban were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001. The remnants of the Islamic militia have since waged a bloody insurgency. About 70,000 international troops, most of them under NATO command, are based in Afghanistan to help the Kabul government battle the insurgency.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday expressed confidence that his government would work closely with the new Pakistani prime minister to fight extremism plaguing both countries. And he said he was “very satisfied” with the “exceptionally strong backing” the NATO alliance had offered to Kabul at last week’s Bucharest summit.
Afghan police have arrested a Taliban commander in the southern province of Kandahar while 15 insurgents have been killed in clashes with Afghan and NATO troops, the government said on Sunday. The violence came days after the United States and its NATO partners reaffirmed long-term commitment to Afghanistan.
The United States has urged allies to redouble efforts in the face of rising Afghan violence and is sending an extra 3,500 Marines. France has promised another 700 troops for NATO’s 47,000-strong Afghan force. Police arrested Taliban commander Abdul Jabar on Saturday in the most significant capture of a militant for some time, the Interior Ministry said.
Jabar, who the government said organized attacks in the south, was captured while on his way towards Pakistan. He was a deputy of Mullah Mansour Dadullah, a prominent Taliban commander captured in Pakistan in February, it said. “He was involved in Taliban insurgent operations against the Afghan state and coalition forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
Also on Saturday, 15 insurgents were killed in two clashes about 40 km (25 miles) west of Kandahar city, the Defense Ministry said, in an area where NATO and Afghan forces have repeatedly battled the Taliban in recent years. The Taliban, ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, have vowed to step up their violent campaign to expel foreign forces and bring down the Western-backed government.—Agencies