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29 Taliban buy tickets to Paradise, 6 use self service
KABUL, Afghanistan -- American and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes engaged in a "fierce firefight" with Taliban insurgents in a remote and mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 29 militants in an effort to capture one of their leaders, according to a joint military statement.But, American officials said, the leader -- identified only as Sangeen -- had not been captured and it was not known whether he was among the dead or had The intensifying conflict has led to Afghan claims that civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes are undermining public support for the war. The joint statement on Thursday insisted that "no noncombatants were injured during this operation" and said that the 29 dead were all militants. They included six insurgents who blew themselves up with suicide vests without causing coalition fatalities, the statement said. As depicted in the statement, coalition forces advanced under a hail of fire from militants on higher ground. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban and the number of insurgent fatalities could not be independently verified. "Dozens of well-armed militants immediately began firing on the combined force to repel the assault," the statement said. "Afghan and coalition forces returned fire, engaging multiple enemies situated both in heavily fortified positions and inside structures on the compound." The fighting took place about 100 miles southwest of the eastern city of Khost along the border with Pakistan. Afghan and American forces had been directed by intelligence reports to a remote militant encampment used as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan's Paktika Province, the statement said. It accused the commander identified as Sangeen of helping senior leaders of Al Qaeda and "hundreds of foreign fighters" infiltrate Afghanistan from Pakistan. Hamidullah Zhuak, a spokesman for the governor of Paktika, said officials had counted the bodies of 34 insurgents, most of them from Arab countries and Pakistan, after the fighting. The battle took place far from populated areas, reducing the risk of civilian casualties, he said. Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC 2009-05-28 |
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