45 Taliban, Afghan civilians, security forces die

[September 12, 2009]  KABUL (AP) -- Forty-five Afghan civilians, security forces and militants were killed in a spate of attacks around the war-torn country, including an overnight military raid targeting insurgents in the increasingly violent north, officials said Saturday.

Taliban attacks have risen steadily the last three years as have deaths of Afghan civilians caught in the grinding war between the Taliban and U.S. and NATO forces.

Taliban violence -- which had been largely confined to the country's south and east in the years after the 2001 U.S. invasion -- has spread to the country's northern provinces this year.

Coalition and Afghan forces Saturday killed 11 militants during an overnight raid in northern Kunduz province, said Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi, the provincial police chief.

The operation targeted Taliban fighters who helped foreign fighters and suicide bombers infiltrate the region, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

She said "a number" of militants were killed after the forces exchanged fire. Roadside bomb-making material, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades were found at the compound, she said.

The raid did not appear to be connected with the kidnapping of a New York Times reporter and his Afghan colleague this month, officials said. British commandos freed the Western reporter last week but the Afghan and a commando died in the operation.

The abductions followed a NATO airstrike on two stolen fuel tankers that appeared to have killed some civilians, officials said. Officials estimated about 70 people died in the strike.

Authorities also reported Saturday a string of deadly militant attacks in the south and east.

In southern Uruzgan province, 14 civilians were killed Friday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Churra district, the Interior Ministry said.

In neighboring Kandahar province, another six civilians were killed by an improvised explosive device Friday in Maiwand district, said district police chief Bashir Hamad.

Roadside bombs planted by militants are usually aimed at NATO or Afghan troops, but hundreds of civilians have been killed by them.

A Taliban ambush, meanwhile, killed six private security guards working for a construction company in the eastern province of Kunar on Saturday, said Gen. Khalilullah Ziayi, the provincial police chief. Ten guards were wounded, he said.

Also in the east, a suspected militant rocket attack killed three civilians in Sabari district of Khost, said Wazir Pacha, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Four police were killed in Nangarhar late Friday when militants attacked a border police checkpoint, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the governor.

In eastern Paktika province, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in Bermel district. Only the bomber died, the Interior Ministry said.

[Associated Press; By RAHIM FAIEZ]

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