May 19, 2002	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1423

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BAGRAM AIR BASE, May 18: Hundreds of coalition troops have blocked off an area of southeastern Afghanistan as part of a major new operation in which some 11 suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members have been killed, officials said on Saturday.

US spokesman Major Bryan Hilferty told reporters here that “approximately 10” people had been killed in an attack by an AC-130 gunship in the early hours of Friday on an uninhabited ridge north of Khost.

The engagement came after Australian Special Air Service (SAS) troops were fired upon and chased, he said.

Hilferty, who refused to give the exact location of the ongoing Operation Condor, denied that those killed had been celebrating a wedding.

“It was not a village, it was an uninhabited ridge line. There were people on that ridge line firing at us,” he said.

Asked how he could be sure that the 10 victims were extremist fighters, Hilferty replied: “Usually people who are firing at you are your enemy... I cannot tell you for sure, but they were firing heavy machine guns at us in a known Al Qaeda, Taliban area.”—AFP