U.S. says 17 militants killed in Afghanistan

By David Brunnstrom

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. and Afghan forces killed 17
insurgents and captured six in two days of fighting in southern
Afghanistan this week, the U.S. military said on Wednesday,
while Taliban guerrillas shot dead a senior pro-government
cleric.

U.S. paratroopers and the Afghan army took part in the
fighting on Monday and Tuesday in the Dai Chopan district of
Zabul, a military statement said.

“Seventeen enemy combatants were killed and six were
captured,” it said, adding that 23 other people were being
questioned about their involvement in the fighting.

A cache of munitions was found in a mosque during the
fighting, including rocket-propelled grenades and machinegun
ammunition, it said.

The statement quoted Major Douglas Vincent, executive
officer of the paratroopers’ battalion, as saying that U.S. and
Afghan troops were “experiencing numerous tactical successes in
the northern districts of Zabul province.”

A U.S. statement on Tuesday said helicopters had taken part
in the operations.

Another U.S. statement said two civilian contractors
working at the U.S. air base in the southern city of Kandahar
were wounded when four rockets landed there early on Monday.

It did not identify the civilians but said they worked for
Kellogg, Brown and Root, a U.S. firm providing logistical
services to U.S. forces. They had been flown to Germany for
treatment and were in stable condition, it said.

A senior Afghan military officer said the wounded men were
Canadians. The Canadian embassy declined to comment.

CLERIC SHOT DEAD

Early on Wednesday, guerrillas shot dead Mawlavi Saleh
Mohammad, head of the influential Ulema (Cleric’s) Council in
the southern province of Helmand, as he walked to a mosque for
early morning prayers, provincial spokesman Haji Mohammad Wali
said.

It was the fourth killing of a senior pro-government cleric
in recent weeks and comes amid stepped-up Taliban violence in
the run up to Sept. 18 parliamentary elections in which
hundreds of people, many of them militants, have died.

The fighting in Zabul occurred not far from the district of
Mian Nishin, scene of a major anti-Taliban operation last
month.

The government says that operation killed 178 guerrillas,
while the United States gave a figure of more than 70, numbers
the guerrillas dismissed as massively exaggerated.

The latest fighting follows a painful two weeks for the
U.S. military during which it suffered 19 deaths in a clash in
the eastern province of Kunar, its heaviest losses in a single
combat operation in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban in
2001.

The losses have made 2005 the bloodiest year for U.S.
forces in the country.

They faced a further setback on Monday when four
“dangerous” Arab al Qaeda militants escaped from the high
security detention center from the main U.S. base at Bagram,
north of Kabul.

U.S. spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O’Hara said a
search was continuing and it appeared the men had swapped their
orange prison uniforms for less distinctive clothes to make the
escape.