U.S. forces killed about a dozen militants in the past week, the military said Saturday, in efforts to keep Taliban-led rebels on the defensive ahead of Afghanistan’s national elections. Afghan officials said another 12 militants were killed in a clash late Friday, but the U.S. military had no word on that fighting. The dozen deaths announced by the U.S. military occurred in skirmishes across the troubled south in which another dozen militants were detained, U.S. spokesman Maj. Jon Siepmann said. "I believe the figures are roughly a dozen killed and another dozen captured," Siepmann said. Several U.S. and allied troops were wounded, but none fatally, he said.
Those fatalities bring to more than 120, the number of militants that American and Afghan officials have reported killed since U.S. Marines began a series of major operations in Taliban strongholds in late May. According to Ghulam Jailani, the deputy police chief of Zabul province, another 12 Taliban died in a battle with U.S. and Afghan troops late Friday. Jailani said the fighting began when rebels rocketed a checkpoint in Daychopan, a mountainous area of Zabul province 190 miles southwest of Kabul that has seen the fiercest fighting. Twelve militants were killed and four captured in a 10-minute exchange of fire before the rest fled, he said. None of the Americans or Afghans were hurt. U.S. and Afghan forces killed five militants and captured seven in the region on Wednesday, but U.S. spokeswoman Master Sgt. Cindy Beam said Saturday she had no reports of a fresh clash there. |