ASIA: Air strike kills 20 militants in Afghanistan: US military
02 Apr 2009 9:59 PM
KABUL, April 2 AFP - A military air strike killed 20 militants in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province following ground clashes between rebels and troops, a spokesman for the US-led force said Thursday.
The military said dozens of militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms ambushed foreign and Afghan troops conducting a foot patrol in Helmand, a hotbed of Taliban activity, on Wednesday.
Troops returned fire and the enemy pulled back to regroup.
"Once the combined elements ensured there were no non-combatants in the area, a precision strike was called to neutralise the enemy," the military said in a statement.
"The information we have says that all 20 of the militants were killed in the precision strike," a US military spokesman told AFP in an email.
The militants died in the Kajaki district, the military said, stressing that there were no Afghan or coalition military casualties.
On Monday, 30 Taliban-linked militants were killed in a police operation in Afghanistan's southern province of Uruzgan, the interior ministry said.
Taliban fighters have led a bloody insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government and foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the hardline movement from government in Kabul.
The insurgency last year reached its deadliest proportions since the invasion and the United States has unveiled a sweeping new strategy designed to defeat the extremists and stabilise the fragile country.
