Up to 22 Taliban killed in central Afghanistan

By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer –

Fri Jul 10, 2009, 6:16 am ET

KABUL –

Fighting overnight between (NATO) international troops and Taliban fighters in central Afghanistan has left as many as 22 of them dead, police said Friday.

The clashes came as Britain's Defense Ministry announced two more deaths, bring the country's toll to nine dead in southern Afghanistan in as many days.

The ministry said the two soldiers died in separate incidents Thursday. Britain's 8,000 troops have been joined in southern Helmand province by thousands of U.S. Marines, who launched a major offensive in the province last week. It is aimed at uprooting Taliban insurgents before elections planned for next month.

In the clash in central Ghazni province, police chief Khail Boz Sherzai said the militants were killed in an airstrike.

But the U.S.-led coalition gave a conflicting account of the fighting.

A U.S. military statement only said that "several" Taliban fighters died, and spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said the toll given by police sounded high.

She also said there were no airstrikes. The clash began as Afghan and international troops pursued militants in Giro district. Taliban fighters open fired and the troops fired back, Mathias said.

The international troops also confiscated grenades, guns and ammunition found in a weapons cache during the operation, which the military said disrupted an insurgent cell.

There were no reports of casualties among the international and Afghan troops.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry said two police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Kandahar district on Thursday, near the Pakistani border. Five others were wounded in the blast, the ministry said in a statement.

Two more British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

July 10, 2009

LONDON (AFP) –

Another two British soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan, taking the death toll to nine in as many days, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

A soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles was killed in a "contact explosion" while on a foot patrol near Nad Ali in Helmand Province on Thursday.

The other soldier, from the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment attached to 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died from a gunshot wound following a battle with Taliban fighters near Lashkar Gah in Helmand on Thursday.

Their next of kin had been informed.

A spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson, said: "These fine British soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice and their memory will live with us forever... We know that their deaths were not in vain."

British deaths have increased sharply since British forces launched a major airborne assault last month against a Taliban stronghold near Gereshk, in Helmand.

The latest deaths bring to 178 the total number of British service personnel who have died during operations in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001.

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alemarah1.org reported the following news in Arabic (http://www.alemarah1.org/arabi) :

- 5 British NATO soldiers were killed when their convoy was attacked with two roadside bombs in Duwar Majeed, Sinjar, Helmand Province, today, July 10, 2009.

- 9 Afghani soldiers were killed in Garshak, when their Ranger was attacked by a roadside bomb yesterday (July 9, 2009).