Coalition warplanes bombed Taliban meeting in a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing up to 50 suspected rebels, Afghan and the United States-led coalition officials said.
Five Canadian soldiers were wounded and a suspected Taliban killed in a gun battle elsewhere in the volatile south.
The coalition said they had dropped a bomb on the rebels when they had retreated into a “compound” after attacking an Afghan and coalition patrol in restive Helmand province’s Kajaki district.
“The Taliban had gathered for a meeting in a mosque and coalition forces identified their location,” Helmand province’s deputy governor Amir Mohammad Akhunzada said.
“In an attack by planes, about 50 Taliban were killed,” he told Agence France-Presse.
A coalition spokesperson, Major Quentin Innes, said he could believe the figures given by Akhunzada.
“Based on the incident, that’s not an unreasonable number,” he said, after he was asked if the figures were accurate.
“This morning Afghan national security forces and coalition forces were attacked by … suspected Taliban in Helmand province,” the spokesman told AFP. The coalition responded by dropping a 1 125kg bomb on the compound.
A spokesperson for the governor’s office, Mohaidin Khan, confirmed the bombing but had no information on the casualties.
In separate incident, five Canadian soldiers were wounded and a suspected Taliban killed in a gun battle early on Monday in Kandahar province, the Canadian military said.
The Canadians were wounded after encountering a Taliban attack about 20km west of the provincial capital Kandahar.
“Five Canadian soldiers were wounded in a fire fight with Taliban forces,” Canadian military spokesperson Lieutenant Mark MacIntyre said.
Helmand and neighbouring Kandahar have seen some of the worst of a dramatic surge in fighting between Afghan and coalition security forces and militants linked to the Taliban regime that was toppled in late 2001 in a strike by a US-led coalition.
About 400 people, most of them rebels, have been killed in fighting that erupted about 10 days ago, according to tolls issued by Afghan and coalition security forces.
Four foreign soldiers have also been killed, including a Canadian who became the first Canadian woman to die in combat since World War II.
Security force and Taliban activity always rises as the weather warms but has been particularly intensive this year, with analysts saying the rebels appear more organised and aggressive.
There are more than 30 000 foreign troops in Afghanistan serving either with a US-led coalition or a Nato force and working alongside the Afghan army and police. This includes about 2 300 Canadians.
The foreign troops, drawn from nearly 40 countries, arrived with the fall of the Taliban in 2001 in an invasion led by the US after the harsh regime failed to surrender Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks.
Despite their presence, the insurgency has become more violent with each passing year and most of its leaders, who feature among the world’s most-wanted men, have evaded capture. — AFP