Coalition says 55 militants killed
Air strikes pound Afghan border
KABUL, Afghanistan - US-led forces rained fire for two days on militants near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, killing about 55 insurgents, officials said yesterday. The battle underscored how fighting with Taliban militants is escalating.
The battle in eastern Paktika province was the second in the past week to reportedly inflict major casualties on militants, who Afghan officials insist are swarming in from strongholds in Pakistan.
Pakistan's government yesterday reiterated an offer to fence the craggy, 1,500-mile frontier - a project begun but abandoned last year amid criticism that it would only enrage the tribes who straddle the frontier and among whom the Taliban find many recruits.
The battle in Paktika began Friday morning, when militants armed with rockets and guns ambushed troops from the US-led coalition patrolling a road in Ziruk district, the coalition said. The troops returned fire and called in air strikes.
Fighting continued until Sunday morning, and the majority of the deaths were from the air strikes, said Captain Christian Patterson, coalition spokesman. About 55 militants died, 25 others were wounded, and three were detained, he said.
Patterson said no coalition troops died, but declined to say if any were wounded.
It was not possible to get independent confirmation of the death toll, but
The clash was the second in a week to inflict heavy casualties on insurgents, who have little answer to Western airpower.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said its soldiers counted the bodies of 94 militants after a joint operation with NATO forces last week in Arghandab, a valley just outside the southern city of Kandahar.
The SITE Intelligence Group said the Taliban posted statements on the Internet yesterday disputing the death toll in Arghandab. SITE, which monitors militant websites, said the Taliban postings reported six Taliban killed and three wounded and that the other bodies were civilians.
The latest deaths means that June is already the bloodiest month this year.
According to an Associated Press tally based on statements from military and government officials, 465 people have died in insurgency-related violence this month, more than the 398 recorded in April.
For the year to date, the tally is nearing 2,000, most of them militants.
Violence was escalating because of stepped-up military operations by the more than 60,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Gulf Research Center based in Dubai.
Alani said the Taliban were exploiting anger at reports of civilian casualties in military operations and successes such as a mass jailbreak in Kandahar to recruit new fighters.
The insurgents have become more adept at Iraq-style guerrilla tactics, including roadside bombs, he said.
"The number of casualties is not a measure of victory or defeat for them," Alani said, referring to the Taliban. "Those people are viewed as martyrs."
NATO said its forces prevented four militants from planting a bomb on a road in eastern Nangarhar province yesterday, but denied reports that two civilians died. After a gunbattle, it said the troops called in air support, killing one militant. The others fled.
However, Zalmay Dadak, mayor of Khogyani district, said coalition fire during the overnight operation also hit a house in a village, killing a man and his son.
