Warplanes attack militants in ambush

Source: Agencies  |   2008-6-24  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MILITANTS ambushed troops patrolling in eastern Afghanistan, prompting a gunbattle and airstrikes that left about 55 militants dead, the United States-led coalition said yesterday.

Meanwhile, a coalition helicopter attacked men suspected of laying a roadside bomb in the same region, killing one. Afghan officials said two civilians, including a four-year-old boy, also died.

The major battle took place on Friday in Paktika, one of the Afghan provinces along the porous Pakistani border where clashes between Taliban militants and security forces have intensified in recent months.

The coalition said militants ambushed the patrol on a road in Ziruk district with rockets and gunfire, prompting US-led troops to return fire and call in warplanes. About 55 insurgents were killed, including three key leaders, a coalition statement said. It did not identify them. Twenty-five militants were wounded and another three detained.

"Patrols in the ambush area continue to report additional enemy casualties," it said. The clash was the second in three days 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 Wednesday in Arghandab, a valley just outside Kandahar.

Outgunned militants have turned increasingly to laying bombs for passing convoys of government or foreign troops. The coalition said yesterday that NATO troops spotted four militants laying a bomb by a road in Nangarhar, another eastern province.

After a gunbattle, a coalition helicopter fired on the militants, killing one of them, spokesman 1st Lt Nathan Perry said. The troops pursued the other three and discovered a cache of bomb-making materials.