Nine suspected Taliban killed in fresh Afghan violence

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Tuesday August 22, 2006

Kabul- British forces killed nine suspected Taliban militants as they prepared to attack International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops stationed in the Nowzad district of the southern province of Helmand, the ISAF said on Tuesday. The attack came on Monday night, one day after British forces killed another nine Taliban militants during an airstrike in the same Nowzad district on Sunday night.

"Alert ISAF troops from the British paras identified the insurgents manoeuvring into an attack position and initiated an overwhelming response using high explosive ammunition," ISAF said in a statement.

It said that there were no ISAF or civilian casualties in the firefight that took place in the former stronghold of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, two Canadian soldiers were wounded when their convoy was ambushed by suspected Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.

The Canadian soldiers, who were part of NATO's deployment in the country, were on their way to the airport in Kandahar city when they were ambushed in Kandahar province's Zharai district, said Major Quentin Innis, an ISAF spokesman in the region.

The soldiers returned fire and continued their trip, Innis said, adding that he was unable to provide the Taliban's casualties.

He said the wounded soldiers were being treated at the hospital at the Kandahar airfield and were in stable condition.

Attacks on NATO and Afghan forces have been on the rise since the alliance took command of security for six southern provinces, including Helmand, from the US-led military coalition in late July. More than a dozen ISAF soldiers, mainly British and Canadians, and scores of Taliban fighters have been killed in violence in the region since then.

In another incident, Afghan and US forces arrested three people Tuesday near Paru Kheyl village in eastern Khost province in a raid aimed at capturing "a known al-Qaeda facilitator," the coalition said in a statement.

"Credible intelligence linked the targeted individual to suspected terrorist activities and attacks against the Afghan and coalition forces in Khost province," the statement said.

Weapons and ammunition were confiscated, including automatic and bolt-action rifles, a shotgun and ammunition-carrying chest racks, the statement said.

No shots were fired, and no Afghan or coalition forces were injured during the operation, it said.

In another incident, two Afghan nomads were wounded Monday when rockets believed to have been fired by the Taliban hit their encampment in the eastern city of Gardiz, another coalition statement said.

The bloodshed followed a major weekend battle that left more than 70 suspected Taliban dead in a district town of Kandahar province, according to Afghan officials.

More than 1,700 people, mostly insurgents, have died this year in military attacks, primarily in the southern provinces.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur