Dozens Of Militants Killed In Afghanistan
Dozens of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan were killed in a battle Sunday after more than 100 attacked a government center near the border with Pakistan, officials said.
American troops and aircraft assisted Afghan forces during the battle in Spera district of eastern Khost province, Governor Arsallah Jamal said.
The militants attacked police guarding the district center from four directions before being pushed back, Jamal said. More than 50 militants died, while the rest fled into Pakistan, he said. Two policemen died and four were wounded.
The troops "called for air strikes consisting of heavy machine-gun fire from helicopters," NATO said in a statement.
"Some insurgents attempted to take cover in a nearby building that helicopters then struck with missiles," it said. "The number of insurgents killed is in double-digit figures."
Also in Khost, a suicide bomber targeting a road construction crew killed one person and wounded four others Sunday, deputy provincial police chief Yaqoub Khan said. All the victims were road workers, Khan said.
Separately, several militants were killed and four were detained during an operation in neighboring Paktia province on Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition said.
The troops were searching compounds when a group of insurgents fired on them from a fortified position, the statement said. "Coalition forces responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," it said.
Afghanistan faces growing militancy nearly seven years after a U.S.-led invasion ousted the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement from power.
The number of militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan has increased by 40 percent so far this year from the same period last year.
Afghan and Western officials say Pakistan has not done enough to crack down on militant hide-outs on its side of the border, a charge Pakistan rejects.
More than 2,700 people - most of them militants - have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of official figures.