KANDAHAR, May 24: More than 65 people, most of them Taliban, were killed in new violence in Afghanistan on Wednesday as the US-led coalition defended itself against criticism of civilian deaths in a major strike.
Sixty suspected insurgents were killed in a “fierce” six-hour battle and subsequent clean-up operation in southern Uruzgan province late on Tuesday, a top Afghan general and the coalition said.
The Afghan army called in coalition air support, said Gen Rahmatullah Raufi, who commands Afghan forces in the south. Four soldiers and a policeman also died, he and a police spokesman said.
The fighting started when a joint Afghan and coalition combat patrol returned fire after several Taliban rebels hiding in a nearby compound shot at them, a coalition statement said.
“Afghan and coalition forces beat back the attack with heavy machine gun fire and forced the attackers to retreat,” it said.
The coalition put the militant death toll at 24. The coalition and Afghan forces often give differing casualty figures.
Uruzgan is among several provinces that have seen major clashes in the past week in a spike in insurgency-linked fighting that has killed close to 400 people, most of them rebels.
A district government employee was meanwhile shot dead in Helmand province, police said.
The operation has included a major coalition air and ground strike in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province that started late Sunday and lasted into Monday. The coalition said it believed up to 80 militants were killed.
Afghan officials said 16 civilians also died and 15 were wounded although villagers say the toll was far higher.
Afghanistan’s main human rights group said it had been told by witnesses and villagers that between 25 and 30 civilians died in the strike, which it condemned as a “clear” violation of human rights.
President Hamid Karzai summoned coalition commander Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry on Wednesday for an explanation.
A coalition spokesman meanwhile defended the force against intensive questioning from journalists, saying US warplanes had used only “precision fire” from aircraft cannon and not bombs.
The coalition troops had also been forced to return fire from militants who had occupied the homes of locals. “We didn’t know there were civilians in the houses,” the spokesman said.—AFP
