Editor's Note:

In previous cases, many Afghani civilians were killed in US and NATO attacks despite initial denial. 

US military claims 13 Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan

 DPA, Fri, 27 Mar 2009, 09:17:59 GMT 

Kabul -

The US military claimed on Friday that their forces killed 13 alleged Taliban fighters in two firefights in southern Afghanistan, as the White House is expected to unveil its new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan later in the day.

 US and Afghan forces attacked alleged Taliban fighters in Lashkargah, the capital city of southern Helmand province Thursday night after receiving information regarding the militants' presence in the area, the US military said in statement.

When the joint forces reached the compound where the alleged Taliban fighters had forced villagers to shelter them, as they were barricaded inside the compound, engaged the forces with small arms fire, it said.

The forces fought back and killed 11 alleged Taliban fighters and detained others without harming some 18 civilians inside the compound, mostly women and children, it said, adding that the targeted alleged Taliban fighters were involved in roadside-bomb attacks in the province.

The statement did not say if there were any casualties among the coalition troops or Afghan forces.

Two other alleged Taliban fighters were killed by an US airstrike when they were trying to plant a roadside bomb in the Deh Rawood district of the southern province of Uruzgan on Thursday, a separate US military statement said.

The fighting came as US media reported that US President Barack Obama planned to increase troop levels in Afghanistan by an additional 4,000 soldiers in a move to expand the fight against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

The increase would come on top of 17,000 additional troops that Obama committed to send to Afghanistan by mid-2009. More than 70,000 international soldiers, more than half of them American troops, are stationed in Afghanistan. The forces are deployed from 42 nations following the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The additional deployments would push total US troop strength in Afghanistan to nearly 60,000.

Obama, who is expected to unveil his new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy on Friday called President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to inform his Afghan counterpart about the details, the presidential palace in Kabul said.

The announcement would come ahead of next week's NATO summit in The Hague, where Afghanistan's neighbours and NATO countries would discuss the future of the war in Afghanistan. For the first time, the meeting also includes Iran, Afghanistan's neighbour and a rising regional power.

Taliban fighters, who were described by allied forces as "defeated" following their ouster, have gained strength and extended their writ to larger swathes of the country in the past three years.

Although analysts believe the Taliban Movement would not be able to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul, they fear the militants could continue to fight the international forces and to destabilize the country for decades to come.

In The Hague next week, representatives from the participating countries are expected to discuss ways to stabilize the war-shattered country before it reaches the un-turning point, which also include talks with more moderate Taliban.

17 Taliban fighters killed in Afghanistan

  Friday, March 27, 2009  

  The International News, KABUL:

Security forces killed 17 alleged Taliban fighters in various operations in Afghanistan, authorities said Friday, as US President Barack Obama was due to announce a new strategy to battle them in the region.

The clashes on Thursday were all in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban stronghold that will be the focus of 17,000 extra US troops due to begin deploying to Afghanistan late spring in a new focus on the troubled country.

The US military said that troops working with Afghan forces killed 11 alleged Taliban fighters in a firefight in Helmand province late Thursday.

The battle was during a raid "to stop a key Taliban fighter and disrupt a cell responsible for roadside bomb-making and emplacement in northern Helmand province," it said. He and his associates were killed.

Such bombs are the main Taliban weapon in the Afghani resistance to the NATO invasion forces that last year reached its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion.

The alleged Taliban fighters were targeted in a civilian compound where they had taken overnight shelter by force, the US statement said.

Also in Helmand, a police operation that lasted nine hours killed five alleged Taliban fighters, including a commander who had planned a bomb blast that killed parliamentarian Dad Mohammad Khan a week ago, the interior ministry said.

Elsewhere Thursday, Afghan forces assisted by US-led coalition troops killed two alleged Taliban fighters allegedly planting a bomb into a frequently travelled road in the southern Uruzgan province, a separate US military statement said.

On Friday meanwhile Afghan authorities announced they had seized a truck packed with three tonnes of explosives that was intended for an attack in the eastern city of Khost.

Washington has been reviewing its efforts to defeat Taliban fighters straddling the Afghan and Pakistan border and President Barack Obama is due to announce the results later Friday.

On Thursday he announced an extra 4,000 US troops to build up the Afghan army on top of the 17,000 announced in February to help out in the country's most difficult regions in the south.

The strategy is also expected to see more focus on Taliban fighters across the border in Pakistan and a boost in the civilian effort to reconstruct war-shattered Afghanistan.