Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the US-led coalition
forces during an hours-long operation killed nearly three dozen
Taliban fighters Saturday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand
province.
The combined forces were conducting a reconnaissance mission
when Taliban fighters engaged the patrol with rocket and small-arms
fire, the statement said, adding that ANSF and Coalition forces
returned fire and easily out-maneuvered the militants.
The clash came as a sustained fighting between the combined
forces and Taliban fighters Saturday entered into a second day near
the Musa Qaleh Wadi region of Helmand, it said.
Saturday's actions "are part of a larger operation to disrupt
terrorist activities in the Helmand Province," the statement
added.
There were no reports of Afghan civilian casualties in the
clash.
On Friday, over a dozen Taliban insurgents while attacking a
patrol of the combined ANSF and Coalition forces were killed in the
same region of northern Helmand.
Rising Taliban-related violence and conflicts have killed over
5,200 people in Afghanistan this year.
The Taliban, who was removed from power by the US invasion in
late 2001, has waged a years-long war against the Afghan
administration and the international troops currently being
deployed in the war-torn country.
(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2007)
