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Over 100 insurgents killed
in Afghan battle: U.S.
Reuters
Wednesday Aug 29, 2007
More than 100 suspected insurgents were killed in a battle
with U.S.-led troops in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military
said on Wednesday.
The battle erupted after a convoy of Afghan and U.S. coalition
forces came under attack in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar
province, it said in a statement.
U.S.-led close air support attacked insurgent positions in the
battle, it added.
"Afghan National Security Forces, advised by coalition forces,
engaged and eliminated more than 100 insurgent fighters,"
the U.S. military said of the Tuesday fighting in the north of
Kandahar province.
There were no civilian casualties but one Afghan security force
member was killed and three foreign troops and three Afghan soldiers
were wounded, it added.
(Article continues below)
No official from the Taliban, who lead the insurgency against
Western troops and the Afghan government, could be immediately
reached for comment.
There was no independent verification of the reported deaths
of the insurgents.
Taliban spokesman often accuse Western troops of exaggerating
insurgent casualties, while Western forces accuse the Taliban
of exaggerating the number of casualties on the U.S., NATO and
Afghan government side.
If confirmed, the Taliban toll would be the highest for many
weeks.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan in the past 19 months, the
bloodiest period since U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban government
in 2001.
On Wednesday, a suicide bomber in a southeastern town near the
border with Pakistan blew himself up as Afghan soldiers were shopping,
a senior provincial official said.
Four civilians and two soldiers were killed in the attack, he
said, adding some civilians were wounded.
Nine Western soldiers, most of them American, have been killed
in Taliban attacks in recent days.
Some 50,000 Western troops under the command of NATO and the
U.S. military are in the country hunting Taliban and al Qaeda
allies.
They are backed by more than 100,000 Afghan soldiers, police
and security agents.
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