Ali
05-09-2005, 03:39 AM
Two US troops die in Afghan clash (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4528213.stm)
Two US marines and about 12 suspected militants have been killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan, the US military has said.
The marines engaged a band of about 20 militants in Laghman province, north of Jalalabad, on Sunday, the Associated Press reported the military as saying.
It said the dead were not being named until relatives had been informed.
The US has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan tracking al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.
The US military said its warplanes were called in during the fighting in Laghman, an opium-producing region that has seen a number of clashes between US-led coalition forces and militants.
US spokesman Col James Yonts said "about a dozen" militants died but the figure could change after further battlefield assessment.
Nearly 150 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the US began its Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.
Peace hopes
Rebel attacks on US-led forces have risen in recent weeks, following a winter lull in violence.
More than 100 people are believed to have died in recent fighting in the south and east of Afghanistan where the Taleban-led insurgency is centred.
The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says the arrival of the spring thaw in the mountain areas where the Taleban-led insurgency has been concentrated, has always marked a new round of fighting in the past few years.
He says there had been hopes this year would be more peaceful amid statements from the US military that the Taleban and other groups were in disarray and that many wanted to give up.
However, the government is seen by some as having been slow in setting out plans for a reconciliation scheme with the Taleban, our correspondent says.
Violence also struck the capital, Kabul, this weekend when a suspected suicide bomber killed himself and two others - including a UN engineer - in an internet cafe.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4528213.stm
Two US marines and about 12 suspected militants have been killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan, the US military has said.
The marines engaged a band of about 20 militants in Laghman province, north of Jalalabad, on Sunday, the Associated Press reported the military as saying.
It said the dead were not being named until relatives had been informed.
The US has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan tracking al-Qaeda and Taleban militants.
The US military said its warplanes were called in during the fighting in Laghman, an opium-producing region that has seen a number of clashes between US-led coalition forces and militants.
US spokesman Col James Yonts said "about a dozen" militants died but the figure could change after further battlefield assessment.
Nearly 150 American soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the US began its Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.
Peace hopes
Rebel attacks on US-led forces have risen in recent weeks, following a winter lull in violence.
More than 100 people are believed to have died in recent fighting in the south and east of Afghanistan where the Taleban-led insurgency is centred.
The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says the arrival of the spring thaw in the mountain areas where the Taleban-led insurgency has been concentrated, has always marked a new round of fighting in the past few years.
He says there had been hopes this year would be more peaceful amid statements from the US military that the Taleban and other groups were in disarray and that many wanted to give up.
However, the government is seen by some as having been slow in setting out plans for a reconciliation scheme with the Taleban, our correspondent says.
Violence also struck the capital, Kabul, this weekend when a suspected suicide bomber killed himself and two others - including a UN engineer - in an internet cafe.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4528213.stm