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5 Rocketeers wacked
KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed five militants in southeastern Afghanistan after they fired rockets and small arms at U.S.-led troop positions, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. There were no casualties among U.S.-led soldiers in the Tuesday night attacks on a base in Khost province and on checkpoints on the nearby border with Pakistan, it said. "Coalition troops returned fire with 155 mm artillery rounds at enemy positions. Coalition aircraft killed five insurgents," the U.S. military said.  The U.S. military did not say who the attackers were but a Taliban spokesman said Taliban fighters were responsible and they had fired 20 rockets at U.S. positions near Khost airport. Ten Afghan government soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the attack, the Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakami told the Afghan Islamic Press news agency. Uh huh The attack in Khost came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was in Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf. Taliban loyalists have been waging an insurgency against U.S. and Afghan government forces since the conservative Islamic militia was ousted in late 2001. The insurgents and their Islamic militant allies have been most active in the south and east of the country although their attacks have fallen off over recent months. Afghan government complaints in the past that Taliban fighters have been able to plot and launch attacks into Afghanistan from the safety of Pakistani territory have strained relations between the neighbors. But the Pakistan army effectively choked off Taliban movement across the rugged, porous border in the run-up to Afghanistan's largely peaceful presidential election in October. Posted by: Steve 2005-03-23 |
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