/ 7 January 2009

US troops kill 32 insurgents in Afghanistan

US-led coalition forces killed 32 insurgents in fighting that erupted in a village in eastern Afghanistan following a raid on a hideout of bomb-makers, the United States military said on Wednesday.

Violence has surged in recent years in Afghanistan since the Taliban, ousted in a US-led invasion in 2001, regrouped in 2005 for driving out the foreign troops and to topple the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Tuesday’s operation was in a village of Laghman province and targeted a Taliban roadside bomb cell responsible for numerous attacks throughout the region, the US military said in a statement.

”During the operation, as many as 75 armed militants exited their compounds and attempted to converge on the force. Shooting from rooftops and alleyways, the militants engaged Coalition forces with small-arms fire in the village,” it said.

”Coalition forces killed 32 armed insurgents including one female, detained one suspected militant, and destroyed two large caches of weapons, explosives and roadside bomb materials during an operation,” it added.

It did not mention any troop or civilian casualties in the operation.

The Taliban were not immediately available for comment and Reuters could not verify independently the US military’s accounts about the clash. – Reuters