Kabul - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed at least
50 Taliban militants in separate attacks and operations in
Afghanistan, while 11 civilians including eight women were killed in
a Taliban rocket attack in southern region, officials said Wednesday.
US-led coalition forces claimed Wednesday their forces killed 32
insurgents, including an armed female militant, in eastern
Afghanistan.
The combined forces targeted a group of 75 Taliban-led militants
in Alishang district of the eastern province of Laghman on Tuesday
and destroyed two large caches of weapons and roadside bomb
materials, the US military said in a statement.
'The targeted Taliban network was involved in planning, building
and emplacing roadside bombs as well as attacks against civilian and
Coalition forces throughout 2008,' the statement said.
The militants fired on the joint forces as they reached the
targeted village, the statement said, adding that the coalition
forces returned fire only with small arms and avoided using close air
support or artillery in order to minimize the potential for civilian
casualties.
The joint forces found two large caches of weapons and explosives
and destroyed them on the spot, because of the unstable nature of the
explosive munitions, it said, adding, 'secondary blasts from the
unstable explosives destroyed the building they (the militants) were
hidden in.'
The statement did not say if there were any casualties on the side
of the combined forces or civilians in the operation.
Due to the remoteness of the area, independent verification of the
death tolls was not possible. Such operations in populated areas in
the past have resulted in deaths of several civilians in addition to
insurgents.
Meanwhile, Afghan commandos and coalition forces killed six
militants, including a rebel commander in Khak-e-Safaid district of
western Farah province on Wednesday, a separate US military statement
said.
An Afghan and a coalition soldier were wounded in the operation,
it added.
In another incident, 12 Taliban militants and 11 civilians were
killed in a clash between Taliban and Afghan forces backed by NATO
troops in Tarin Kot district of southern Uruzgan province, an
Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
During the clash on Monday a rocket allegedly fired by suspected
Taliban militants hit a road near a group of civilians, killing 11 of
them and wounding nine others, the statement said.
Gholab Khan Wardak, the provincial police security chief said the
villagers were fleeing from their homes in fear of NATO airstrikes
when the incident occurred. He said NATO warplanes were in the area
at the time of the rocket attack.
Wardak said eight of the dead civilians were women.
Separately, NATO forces rejected reports that several civilians
were killed during an operation in Bughran district of southern
Helmand province on Tuesday morning.
Local Afghan media, quoting village residents, reported that up to
11 civilians, including a medical doctor, were killed in the NATO
operation, but the alliance said in a statement that those killed
were all insurgents.
'During the operation, a group of insurgents were positively
identified leaving a compound that had been under observation. When
these personnel were clear of the compound, they were engaged by ISAF
forces,' the statement said, referring to the NATO-led International
Security and Assistance Force.
The statement said international forces were aware of the
allegations, but they had 'no knowledge of casualties other than the
positively identified insurgents.'
Civilian casualties at the hands of international forces have
become a sensitive issue for the government of Western-backed
President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai has repeatedly warned that increasing civilian deaths would
erode public support for his government and would provoke anti-
foreigner sentiments in Afghanistan.
At least 1,500 civilians were among the 4,000 killed in the first
eight months of last year, according to United Nations officials in
Afghanistan.
USA
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