US troops kill 14 Afghans

2004-01-02 07:49

Kabul, Afghanistan - US troops and helicopters killed as many as 14 insurgents in clashes in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, the military said on Thursday.

Three US soldiers were wounded in the battle on Wednesday about 20km northeast of Shkin, a town in Paktika province near the Pakistan border.

The first three militants were killed in a gunbattle after a small group of insurgents fired on a US patrol, Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Hilferty said.

The same patrol later found the insurgents, and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters flying in support inflicted several more casualties, Hilferty said.

We didn't go to see the bodies

"We don't know for sure, but we think 11," he said. "It was getting night and we didn't go to see the bodies."

One of the wounded American soldiers was evacuated and is in a stable condition, Hilferty said. The other two immediately returned to duty.

Suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda militants regularly attack US and allied Afghan forces as well as government and aid workers in a broad swath of southern and eastern Afghanistan along the rugged Pakistani frontier.

The US military, which still has more than 11 000 troops here, says it killed 10 militants and detained more than 100 people in the border regions in a four-week operation called Avalanche which ended on Monday.

Afghan, US and UN officials have urged Pakistan to prevent insurgents from using the country as a base for cross-border attacks.

Pakistan, a key ally in the United States' war on terrorism, insists it is doing all it can.

- AP