Deadly clash in Afghanistan

2008-11-16 14:14

Kabul - A bomb blast and clashes have killed an international soldier in the Nato-led force in Afghanistan and 10 militants, including some allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, the military said on Sunday.

Nato's International Security Assistance Force did not release the nationality of the trooper, who was killed when a bomb struck a patrol on Saturday. The 40-nation force did not say where the blast had occurred.

The new death means 261 international troops have lost their lives this year in the effort to help the government fight an insurgency led by the Taliban, according to the icasualties.org website.

Most were in attacks, although the figure includes accidents and other causes of death. The figure compares to 232 for the whole of last year.

Five militants were killed in an operation on Saturday aimed at al-Qaeda in the eastern province of Paktia on the border with Pakistan, the separate US Forces Afghanistan said.

The troops also detained a "significant al-Qaeda associated militant known to finance militant operations and to assist Taliban leaders with the movement and training of Arab and foreign fighters into Afghanistan," it said.

Militants killed, arrested

In all, eight alleged militants were arrested in the province's Zurmat areas.

A similar operation in the adjacent border province of Khost was targeted at the radical Haqqani network which has links with al-Qaeda. About 10 suspected militants were detained, the statement said.

The Haqqani group, which straddles the border, was formed during the 1980s resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan under well-known fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Another five militants were killed in an operation on Friday in the southern province of Uruzgan in a gunfight that erupted while troops were searching a compound, another coalition statement said.

The removal of the Taliban government in a US-led invasion in late 2001, when the hardliners did not hand over its al-Qaeda allies, resulted in a Taliban-led insurgency which has gained pace since then.

- AFP