November 9, 2009, Reuters – 

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) –

NATO and Afghan officials claimed on Monday their forces had killed at least 130 Taliban fighters in a major operation over the past week in an area of Afghanistan's north where militant activity has surged.

A combined force of 700 Afghan troops and 50 NATO soldiers cleared villages of fighters, killing more than 130 (alleged Taliban fighters) including eight Taliban commanders during a five-day operation, NATO spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Vician said.

Kunduz province governor Mohammad Omar told Reuters the combined force had killed 133 fighters during the operation, which took place in and around Kunduz's Char Dara district.

However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said only five fighters had died, and called the death toll given by NATO and Afghan officials "propaganda."

The NATO-led force deployed air strikes against armed insurgents but believed no civilians were among those killed, Vician said. No NATO or Afghan troops were killed, he added.

Kunduz province is mainly patrolled by the NATO force's German contingent, which has failed to prevent Taliban fighters from taking control of many rural villages in recent months.

Its Char Dara district was the site of the deadliest incident involving German troops since World War Two. In early September, a German officer ordered a U.S. air strike that the Afghan government says killed 30 civilians as well as 69 fighters.

Germany acknowledged this week for the first time that civilians were killed in that strike and not all procedures were followed correctly, but says an air strike was nonetheless needed to prevent a suicide attack by fighters in stolen fuel trucks.

That incident also drew attention to the rapid spread of Taliban control in Kunduz, one of the provinces where NATO says insurgents have made gains this year, spreading out of southern and eastern bases into once-quiet northern and western areas.

(Reporting by Peter Graff and Hamid Shalizi in KABUL and Mohammad Hamed in KUNDUZ; Editing by Paul Tait)

Fighting in north Afghanistan kills 130  (alleged Taliban fighters)

By  Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer –

Mon Nov 9, 2009, 12:44 pm ET

KABUL –

Afghan and international troops killed more than 130  (alleged Taliban fighters) in six days of fighting in a once-stable area of northern Afghanistan that has seen a recent spike in Taliban attacks, NATO said Monday. It was some of the heaviest fighting in the north this year.

The operation, which took place last week, was in the Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province against Taliban fighters who had been threatening NATO supply lines from Russia.

An estimated 700 Afghan troops and 50 international soldiers, mostly Americans, took part in the operation. A NATO statement said 130 Taliban fighters, including eight commanders, were killed. The statement did not say how NATO arrived at the death figure.

"It is the largest operation I've ever seen in Kunduz," Mohammad Omar, governor of Kunduz province, was quoted as saying in a NATO press release. "You've got the Taliban running all over the place."

After the fighting ended, Afghan and international troops distributed humanitarian supplies in villages affected by the operation. Six trucks delivered clothing and food, including cooking oil, rice and beans in hopes of winning public support.

Kunduz, a province which borders Tajikistan, is the main area of operation of German forces. But Lt. Col. Joerg Lange, spokesman for the Bundeswehr Operations Command in Potsdam, Germany, said German troops had not been involved in the fighting.

Residents of the northern provinces of Baghlan and Kunduz provinces say security has been steadily deteriorating in the north for the past two years.

But violence increased markedly early this year after NATO opened a new supply route which brings supplies from Europe through Russia and down to the former Soviet republics of central Asia, from where they are brought by truck to U.S. forces in central and southern Afghanistan.

The route was opened after attacks threatened the long-standing supply routes from Pakistan.

On Sept. 4, Taliban fighters hijacked two fuel trucks in Kunduz, and German forces called in an airstrike by U.S. fighter pilots, saying they feared the trucks could be used in suicide bombings. Thirty civilians and 69 armed Taliban died in the strike, according to a probe by an Afghan presidential commission.

NATO said no coalition troops or civilians were injured in the latest operation.

Separately in eastern Afghanistan, a woman and child were killed when a mortar hit a home during a more than three-hour fight that  (alleged Taliban fighters) had with private security guards protecting roadbuilders in Paktika province, said Hamid Ullah Zoowak, a spokesman for the governor of Paktika province.