Afghan and coalition soldiers killed 27 militants in southern Afghanistan as part of new operations to defeat a Taliban-led insurgency, the government and the US-led International Security Assistant Force said on Thursday. Twenty-six were killed in two separate battles on Wednesday in the southern province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the extremist movement. One other militant was killed in a Thursday raid in eastern Paktika province.In the first of the two Kandahar battles, soldiers spotted and attacked “enemy fighters” on a ridgeline in the volatile district of Shah Wali Kot, the coalition said in a statement. “A search of the ridgeline resulted in the discovery of several dead enemy fighters, several rocket shells and clothing,” it said. The Afghan Interior Ministry said, “20 enemies were killed and eight more of them were injured.”
Six more were killed in an operation in Zhari district, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of Kandahar city, the ministry said. The coalition announced separately that soldiers killed a suspected militant and detained three others in a raid early on Thursday on what was believed to be a Taliban safe house in Paktika province.
A search of the compound, believed to have been used by militants working to facilitate suicide bombings, found a video camera and various tapes of “martyr” operations, it said.
The Taliban has claimed capturing a foreign soldier, which would be a first in its insurgency that was launched soon after the movement was forced from government by a US-led coalition in late 2001. The coalition said meanwhile it was still investigating reports that a soldier had disappeared, but referred queries to the United Arab Emirates, which said Wednesday one of its security forces was missing in the south.