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U.S. says 19 militants killed in Afghanistan

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 08:41 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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