(CBS/AP) Fighting in southern Afghan mountains that involved U.S.-led coalition forces killed at least 24 militants, four Afghan soldiers and one policeman, the coalition said Wednesday. An Afghan general said up to 60 militants had died. It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the number of reported casualties, which was impossible to confirm independently because the scene of the fighting is remote and insecure.
A coalition statement said the fighting started after a joint Afghan-coalition patrol was attacked in Uruzgan province's Tirin Kot district Tuesday evening. The troops beat back the assault and forced the militants to retreat. Beside the troops and police killed, six Afghan soldiers and three police were wounded, the statement said.
The military commander for southern Afghanistan, Gen. Rehmatullah Raufi, said four Afghan soldiers had died and that the bodies of about 60 militants were recovered. He said coalition airstrikes were called in toward the end of the battle. Maj. Scott Lundy, a coalition spokesman, confirmed that the coalition provided air support.
The fighting began in a small village in Tirin Kot district before the militants fled higher into the mountains, Raufi said. It was there that airstrikes bombed Taliban positions, he said.
In the past year, Uruzgan has been the site of some of the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan, but militants suffered high losses in multiple battles with coalition forces, and the violence there has subsided in recent months. Last Friday, a U.S. soldier was killed and seven wounded in a battle in southern Uruzgan that also saw 20 Taliban militants killed.
Militants have stepped up attacks in the last several months, particularly in Afghanistan's southern and eastern regions near its border with Pakistan. Thousands more NATO forces are scheduled to move into the areas in the next few months, during summer in the region. |