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US-led coalition: 55 militants killed in battle in eastern Afghanistan

By STEPHEN GRAHAM,Associated Press Writer AP - Tuesday, June 24

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led forces rained fire for two days on militants near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, killing about 55 insurgents in escalating battles against the Taliban, officials said.

The fighting in Paktika province on Friday and Saturday was the second in the past week to reportedly inflict major casualties on militants, whom Afghan officials insist are swarming in from Pakistan.

Pakistan's government on Monday meanwhile repeated a proposal to fence the rugged 1,500-mile (2,400-kilometer) 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.

Charles Dunbar, professor of international relations at Boston University and former U.S. diplomat, said the unabated violence highlighted the need for regional and Western governments to seek political solutions to a conflict that shows no sign of easing.

As part of that, "Pakistan can perhaps do more than it is doing to control the free movement of the Taliban" as well as its current policy of seeking peace deals with militants on its side, he said.

The battle in Paktika province began Friday morning, when militants armed with rockets and guns ambushed troops from the U.S.-led coalition patrolling a road in Ziruk district, the coalition said. The troops returned fire and called in airstrikes.

Troops reported that about 55 militants died, 25 others were wounded and three were detained, coalition spokesman Capt. Christian Patterson said. He 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 Nabi Mullakhail, the provincial police chief, said militants had suffered "huge" casualties in the remote, mountainous district.

The latest casualties 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 so far this month, more than the 398 recorded in April. For the year to date, the tally is nearing 2,000, most of them militants.

NATO said its forces prevented four militants from planting a bomb on a road in eastern Nangarhar province on Monday, but denied reports that two civilians also died, saying the fighting happened outside populated areas.

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.

Civilians are regularly killed in clashes between militants and security forces, as well as bearing the brunt of insurgent suicide bombings.

On Monday, police said a car exploded in the western town of Shindand, killing four civilians and wounding another dozen in what appeared to be a botched suicide attack.

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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

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