KABUL, July 30: US-led coalition troops and Afghan security forces killed 20 militants and foiled a Taliban-led ambush in southern Afghanistan ahead of the scheduled expansion of NATO’s presence in the restive region, the US military said on Sunday.
The fighting erupted after a group of Taliban militants attempted an ambush in the Shahidi Asssas district of Uruzgan province late on Saturday, it said.
“Afghan National Army and coalition forces killed 20 Taliban extremists ... after they attempted an ambush from a compound,” a military statement said, without giving details about the compound.
The coalition forces responded with artillery and air strikes, the statement said.
The clash was the latest in a spate of violence in the south, where a NATO force will take over from the US-led coalition on Monday.
The military reported no casualties among coalition forces or Afghan troops.
COOPERATION SOUGHT: Pakistan needs to give “real cooperation” to combat Taliban militants in its rugged border zone with Afghanistan, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Sunday.
“We need a real cooperation of Pakistan but it seems very difficult for them,” she said at a press conference at the end of a two-day visit to Afghanistan.
“I think that the border is a very difficult region and we ask Pakistan to make some more efforts to control that zone because ... we think that a lot of the fighters — the Taliban fighters — are coming from there,” the French defence minister stressed.—AFP
