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US-led troops say kill 14 Taliban rebels

Posted on: Friday, 23 June 2006, 01:04 CDT

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces have killed 14 Taliban fighters in clashes during a major operation against rebels in volatile southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

Eight insurgents were killed in a raid on Thursday on a cave complex used as a "meeting place and sanctuary" for Taliban bomb-makers in Uruzgan province.

Six rebels were arrested while a cache containing AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades and two machine guns was also recovered, a spokesman for the U.S. military said in a statement late on Thursday.

The coalition forces did not suffer any losses.

Six other Taliban fighters were killed in an attack in neighboring Helmand province on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

There were no immediate comment on the attacks from the Taliban, who were ousted from power in 2001 but have stepped up attacks in their southern heartland, bordering Pakistan, where they enjoy considerable support from the local population.

More than 1,000 people, including over 40 foreign soldiers, have died this year, the worst bloodshed in the war-ravaged country since the fall of the Taliban and ahead of NATO troops taking over the volatile south from the U.S. forces.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday voiced his concern over the growing violence and urged the world to extend war against militants beyond his country's borders -- an oblique reference to neighboring Pakistan from where the Afghan officials say the Taliban organize and launch attacks.

Source: REUTERS

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