NATO Begins New Afghan Offensive

Thousands of American and Afghan troops unleashed a new offensive against Taliban militants in Afghanistan's east, as NATO-led troops and aircraft killed 17 suspected insurgents near their base in the south.

The renewed American push to defeat the Taliban-led insurgency comes nearly five years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the hard-line militia from power.

It also follows a similar two-week long NATO operation in the country's south, which the Western military alliance said have left over 500 insurgents killed.

Fighter planes and helicopters will back ground troops in American-led Operation Mountain Fury, which aims to defeat Taliban insurgents and extend the government's reach in volatile areas close to the Pakistan border, according to the U.S. military.

The new push is "just one part of a series of coordinated operations placing continuous pressure on Taliban extremists ... in order to provide security to the population, extend the government to the people and to increase reconstruction," the military said in a statement.

The 7,000 U.S. and Afghan troops will concentrate their fight on the central and eastern provinces of Paktika, Khost, Ghazni, Paktya and Logar, military said.

Taliban and other Islamic extremist groups, including al Qaeda, are known to operate in the region, especially in the areas bordering Pakistan where the reach of the government is weak and militants find sanctuaries.

Underscoring the dangers the troops face, two separate insurgent attacks on a military base in Khost province killed a U.S.-led coalition soldier and wounded another on Friday, the military said. A number of Afghan troops were also wounded, a statement said.

A suspected suicide bomber also blew himself up in the same province when explosives strapped to his body went off prematurely as he approached a police checkpoint on Saturday. No one else was injured in the blast, police said.

The U.S. military said that troops have been preparing for weeks for Mountain Fury but launched its "maneuver phase" early Saturday.

A separate U.S.-led operation called Big Northern Wind has been going on in neighboring Kunar province's Korangal Valley since late August.

These offensive operations come as the country is going through its bloodiest phase since Taliban's ouster from power in 2001.

According to an Associated Press count based on reports from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, 2,800 people have died so far this year in violence nationwide, including militants and civilians — about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005.

"Mountain Fury will continue until the conditions of bringing security, construction and growth are met," Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, the top U.S. operational commander, said in the statement.

"The Afghan people are tired of war. They want what their government is capable of providing: security, employment, education and a better way of life," Freakley said.

Meanwhile, NATO troops and aircraft in the country's southern Uruzgan province killed 17 suspected insurgents placing roadside bombs near a military base Friday, the alliance said.

About 60 suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan Friday, sparking a battle in which four militants died, police said.

NATO and Afghan soldiers came to the aid of police after the insurgents attacked the checkpoint near the district police headquarters Friday in Khas Uruzgan district of southern Uruzgan province, said Mohammad Zahir, the district police chief.

There were no casualties among the Afghan security forces or NATO. Police recovered the bodies of four suspected Taliban along with their weapons, Zahir said.

Separately, a bomb blast south of the Afghan capital killed three security guards and wounded another on Saturday, police said.

The remote-controlled device went off as a car carrying four Afghan nationals passed on the main road in Musayi district, Kabul province, said Ali Shah Paktiawal, a police official.

The victims were all Afghans working for local private security firms which provides services to local and international non-governmental organizations, said Mohammad Daud Nadim, regional police chief. All four were armed at the time of the blast, he said.