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12 insurgents killed in Afghan fighting
 Fighting between insurgents and US-led coalition and Afghan forces in the country's troubled east left 12 rebels dead and one US soldier slightly wounded, the US military said on Sunday. The clash occurred on Saturday in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, said US military spokesman Lt Col Jerry O'Hara. "It was clearly the insurgents who fired upon us first," O'Hara said. O'Hara said the 12 were killed by a combination of direct fire from troops on the ground and coalition attack aircraft, and that the rebels fled across the border into Pakistan after the fighting. He said no coalition or Afghan forces crossed the border.Pakistan's military reported that some shells from the fighting landed in Pakistan's North Waziristan Agency, but no one was hurt there. Mortar and artillery shells fired by the US military at suspected militants in Afghanistan landed in Pakistani territory on Sunday, but no one was injured, Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Shaukat Sultan said. The shooting in the early hours of Sunday morning occurred when the US troops were operating in Afghanistan's Paktika province, near the Pakistani border village of Alwara Mandi in North Waziristan Agency, he added. The US commander in the area had informed his Pakistani counterpart that since they were engaged in a "skirmish with miscreants" — a byword for militants — very close to the Pakistani border, the possibility of some rocket or artillery fire landing in Pakistani territory could not be ruled out. "Certain shells did land in Pakistani area but there was no collateral damage," Maj Gen Sultan said. owever, a Pakistani intelligence official in Miranshah, said on condition of anonymity that five men were killed near Alwara Mandi by US jet and rocket fire. Alwara Mandi residents have picked up the bodies and have asked local people to help identify them, he said. An Afghan official said the gunmen were Taliban. Afghan government and US military accusations that Taliban and other Islamic militants are able to operate from Pakistan have angered Pakistan, a US ally, which has been trying to clear militants from its side of the border. US military spokeswoman Lt Cindy Moore said Pakistani border forces had cooperated with US forces in their pursuit of the rebels. Posted by: Fred 2005-05-23 |
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