December 28, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 4, 1424

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KABUL, Dec 27: US troops on Saturday killed four Taliban following a deadly ambush on an Afghan intelligence official in eastern Afghanistan, a military official said.

“Khost deputy intelligence director was ambushed and martyred by the Taliban,” Khial Baz Khan, military division commander of Khost province, said.

“The three Taliban who ambushed the deputy director have also been killed by coalition forces. Two of the three seemed to be Arabs,” he said, adding that the operation was continuing.

Khial Khan did not have further details and was on his way to the site of the ambush in Nadirshahkot, 40 kilometres west of Khost.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the killing of deputy intelligence director Qudratullah Mandozai in the morning attack and said four militants had been killed by US troops after the ambush.

“A communist working as the deputy intelligence chief in Khost province was killed along with four others travelling with him in the same vehicle in Nadirshahkot district of Khost province,” the spokesman said.

“On the way back after the Taliban carried out the attack, coalition forces who were travelling on the same road heard the gunfire and attacked the Taliban, killing four of them,” he said.

Hundreds of US troops backed by warplanes have launched an air assault against militants in eastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said on Saturday.—AFP