Police: NATO, Afghan forces kill 2 dozen militants

[May 13, 2010]  KABUL (AP) -- NATO and Afghan troops killed more than three dozen insurgent fighters in separate overnight operations in northern and eastern Afghanistan, Afghan police said Wednesday.

The two operations against suspected Taliban fighters come a day after U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his support in Washington for his visiting Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai.

The U.S. and its allies are preparing a push with Afghan forces this summer to stabilize the more-restive south -- the Taliban's birthplace. But the north and east have also seen rising violence in recent months.

In one of the overnight strikes, special forces in three helicopters swarmed in on insurgents who had attacked a volunteer security force near the northern town of Kunduz, two regional police officials said.

The troops killed 31 insurgents, said provincial police Chief Gen. Abdul Razaq Yaqoubi. They also found three suicide vests, Yaqoubi said.

Kunduz deputy provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Aqtash said a Taliban commander known as Mullah Oussman was among those killed.

For its part, NATO said a joint Afghan and international security force killed more than two dozen insurgents while pursuing a senior Taliban commander in Kunduz.

The alliance said the force entered a compound in the village of Kharid-e Olya, working on intelligence information that Taliban fighters were preparing for a large attack.

The allied forces came under fire from a mosque and nearby woods, and returned fire -- including using air support, the alliance said. The insurgents used machine guns, automatic rifles and hand grenades, it said.

Separately, in the southeastern Ghazni province, NATO and Afghan forces stormed three villages in Qarabagh district -- killing 14 militants, said provincial police chief Khial Baz Sherzai.

Several were believed to be from outside Afghanistan, and police were investigating, he said.

NATO did not immediately comment on that incident.

The police officials said no civilians or allied forces were injured in either operation.

In southern Afghanistan, Afghan forces partnered with international troops arrested at least 14 insurgents Wednesday in the Now Zad district of Helmand province, said Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor. He said the Taliban were captured and their weapons were seized after troops received a tip that they were holed up in a small house.

[Associated Press; By AMIR SHAH]

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