Afghan, U.S. Troops Targeted

Suspected Taliban insurgents killed five Afghan government troops and wounded two U.S. soldiers in attacks in the south and east of Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. military officials said Monday.

The Afghan troops were patrolling late Sunday in a pickup truck through Kighai mountain gorge in southern Kandahar province when they came under fire, said Haji Granai, a military commander in the provincial capital.

Granai blamed Taliban fighters for the attack that killed five Afghan soldiers and wounded five. No group claimed responsibility, however.

Three weeks ago, hundreds of Afghan government troops were sent to the area, looking for Taliban remnants, he said. "This is a mountainous area. Taliban are hiding there."

After the attack, government troops arrested 13 men with suspected links to the Taliban, Granai said.

The area is located about 25 miles north of the provincial capital of Kandahar in the Shah Wali Kot district, where the suspects were being questioned, he said.

Shah Wali Kot is about 85 miles southwest of the Dai Chupan mountains, the scene of intense fighting earlier this month between coalition forces and Taliban insurgents. More than 100 Taliban were reported killed in about nine days of battles in the rugged region of Zabul province. One U.S. special operations soldier and an unknown number of Afghan troops also died in the fighting.

Meanwhile, two American soldiers were wounded on Sunday in eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers, who were not identified, were evacuated for treatment to Bagram Air Base, the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition forces north of Kabul.

One of the soldiers suffered a gunshot wound to his right leg during a firefight near a coalition base at Shkin, in Paktika province, with a five-man group of insurgents, Col. Rodney Davis, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said in a statement. The insurgents retreated with no reported casualties, he said.

The other soldier was shot in the right forearm in a clash near the coalition base at Bari Kowt, in Kunar province, Davis said, adding there was no damage to coalition equipment or report of enemy casualties.

Southern and eastern Afghanistan, along the border with Pakistan, have been the most active fronts in the fight against the Taliban. The hardline Islamic regime, ousted in late 2001 by U.S.-led forces, has recently stepped up attacks in an apparent bid to undermine the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Four American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the past month.

Afghan authorities allege that al Qaeda, Taliban and allied fighters loyal to renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are staging their operations from Pakistani territory. Pakistan denies the charge.

Some 11,500 coalition forces, mainly American, are in the country searching for Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives. Al Qaeda is blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.