US military kills 32 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

KABUL (AFP) – April 10, 2009

The US military said Friday that forces under its command killed 32 alleged Taliban fighters in overnight battles and air strikes across southern Afghanistan, the main battlefield in the Taliban-led insurgency.

One of battles erupted in the province of Helmand when alleged Taliban fighters attacked a patrol of Afghan and US-led coalition troops Thursday, a statement said.

"The friendly forces responded with small-arms fire, heavy weapons and close-air support, resulting in the deaths of 15 enemies of Afghanistan," it said in a statement.

The fighting happened near the provincial capital Lashkar Gah where Afghan authorities also reported heavy fighting overnight, claiming that 36 alleged Taliban fighters were killed although they had the bodies of only seven.

Another US military statement said a dozen more alleged Taliban fighters were killed in Uruzgan province after another attack on an Afghan and coalition patrol.

"The combined force responded with small-arms, rocket-propelled grenade and close-air support fire, killing 12 insurgents," it said.

Also Thursday, Afghan and coalition forces killed five "combatants" in Kandahar province's Maywand district, an earlier statement said.

The troops raided a cell "directly linked" to a suicide attack that killed four Afghan civilians and a coalition forces member in January, it said.

The force could not immediately confirm exactly to which attack it was referring.

A suicide attack in the district killed two US soldiers and two Afghans on January 8, but there was a rash of attacks that month, when 25 international soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan.

Suicide bomber kills 5, wounds 17 in Afghanistan

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer Noor Khan,

– Thu Apr 9, 5:34 pm ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan –

A suicide bomber attacked a police drug eradication unit in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 17, an official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

The attacker struck the patrol in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, a major drug-producing area, said Kamal Uddin, deputy provincial police chief. The police unit was traveling in a convoy of vehicles headed for nearby districts to eradicate poppies, Uddin said.

Five people — two police officers and three civilians — were killed in the blast, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor. The blast also wounded four policemen and 13 civilians, Ahmadi said.

Two police vehicles and three shops were damaged, Uddin said. He initially reported four dead policemen, but the casualty figures were later revised by Ahmadi.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the blast in a phone call to an Associated Press reporter in southern Afghanistan. In a later posting on the Internet, the Taliban said the attacker was on foot, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamic extremists Web sites

The Afghan Interior Ministry issued a statement blaming "the narcotics mafia" for the attack.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium, the main ingredient in heroin. The Afghan opium trade accounts for 90 percent of worldwide production. The U.N. estimated last year that up to $500 million from the illegal drug trade flows to Taliban fighters and criminal groups.

The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, said his troops have increased their targeting of drug operations by eight- or tenfold in the past four months, specifically for drug lords or operations that could be tied to insurgents and insurgent funding.

McKiernan told newspaper executives gathered at The Associated Press annual meeting Monday that heroin trafficking was "a debilitating system across this country that eats away at good governance, eats away at progress and it certainly provides a funding source for the insurgency."

In Warsaw, Polish President Lech Kaczynski approved the government's plan to send 400 more soldiers to Afghanistan, joining some 1,600 serving with NATO in the central province of Ghazni. The reinforcements are expected to arrive by early May.

On Wednesday, a raid by U.S. coalition troops in eastern Khost province killed four people, including two women, and wounded another woman, the coalition said in a statement Thursday. The coalition at first labeled the four dead as militants, but later said it appeared that was not the case.

"Coalition forces are working closely with local Afghan officials and family members to express condolences and provide assistance in the aftermath of this tragic event," a U.S. statement said.

The issue of civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other foreign troops has caused friction between President Hamid Karzai and his government's foreign backers in the country.

Karzai has demanded many times that raids by foreign troops on Afghan villages stop, and that any operation should be done in coordination with Afghan authorities.

U.S. and NATO officials say the militants regularly operate from civilian areas, thus putting civilians in danger.

Separately, six alleged militants were killed and another detained in a coalition operation in the southern province of Kandahar late Wednesday, the coalition said.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led resistance, where thousands more U.S. troops have been ordered to join the fight by President Barack Obama to try to reverse militant gains in the last three years.

US military says 5 Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan

Fri Apr 10, 4:22 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

The US military said Friday that its troops working with Afghan soldiers killed five fighters from a network linked to a suicide attack that claimed the life of a foreign soldier earlier this year.

The operation late Thursday was conducted in the Maywand district of the southern province of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold where the US-led coalition has conducted other raids in the past week that it said killed 10 militants.

"Afghan and coalition forces killed five combatants in Kandahar province during an operation to disable a Taliban network that facilitates logistics for attacks in the province," a statement said.

"The cell was directly linked to the suicide attack in Maywand district that killed four Afghan civilians and a coalition forces member in January."

The force could not immediately confirm exactly which attack it was referring to.

A suicide attack in the district killed two US soldiers and two Afghans on January 8, but there was a rash of attacks that month, when 25 international soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan.

Suspected Taliban Destroy Six NATO Oil Tankers In Pakistan

(RTTNews) - April 10, 2009

More than six oil tankers, used for supplying fuel to NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, were reportedly destroyed Friday by suspected Taliban fighters in Chamkani region of Pakistan's main northwest city of Peshawar, reports say.

The fighters blasted one of the 35 tankers--loaded with diesel, petrol and aviation fuel--parked overnight at the Chamkani area by placing an explosive device underneath, an unidentified police official said.

The blast triggered a massive blaze, which engulfed six tankers, he said, adding that the blaze was only brought under control by Pakistan Air Force (PAF) vehicles after local firefighters failed to control the blaze. Special chemicals were used to extinguish the raging flames, a security official said.

The oil tankers, contracted to supply NATO forces, had been parked in an unauthorized area, the official said.

The Taliban fighters have carried out a series of attacks in recent times against supplies for U.S. and NATO-led foreign forces fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. The bulk of supplies and equipment required by the foreign troops across the border are shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber.

U.S. officials say northwest Pakistan has become a safe haven for Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.

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