U.S. says 19 militants killed in Afghanistan

By David Brunnstrom

KABUL (Reuters) – U.S. and Afghan forces killed 19
insurgents and captured six in 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 Afghan troops backed by U.S.
helicopters had taken part in fighting since Monday in the Dai
Chopan district of Zabul, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel
Jerry O’Hara said.

“Seventeen enemy were killed between yesterday afternoon
and today and two others on Monday,” he said. “We are going
after enemy forces in what they used to call safe havens.”

The military said six insurgents were captured and 23 other
people were being questioned about involvement in the fighting.

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

A U.S. 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.”

O’Hara said two Mexican 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.

He said they worked for Kellogg, Brown and Root, a U.S.
firm providing logistical services to U.S. forces and had been
flown to Germany for treatment where they were in stable
condition.

A senior Afghan military officer had earlier said the
wounded men were Canadians.

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.

O’Hara said a search was continuing and it appeared the men
had swapped their orange prison uniforms for less distinctive
clothes to make their escape.