February 14, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 25, 1428

KANDAHAR, Feb 13: Nato and Afghan forces killed 22 Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan during battles near a besieged dam and a remote town that was captured by the militants, officials said on Tuesday.

Up to 15 militants were killed on Monday when British troops backed by helicopters and Afghan forces tried to clear rebel strongholds around the hydroelectric dam in Kajaki district of Helmand province, police said.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it called in close air support against militants in the same area again on Tuesday in a “successful precision air strike.” It did not say how many rebels were killed.

Another seven militants were killed on Tuesday near Musa Qala, a town in Helmand that was overrun by the Taliban two weeks ago, provincial police chief Mohammad Nabi Mullahkhil said.

Kajaki has seen intense fighting in the past few days as British forces try to establish security to allow engineers to resume work on a hydro-power plant.

ISAF said more than 300 of its troops supported by Afghan soldiers had on Monday cleared a large area near Kajaki containing around 60 enemy compounds.

The British military announced last week it had cleared another area of about 25 compounds.

The latest area “has been the site of regular enemy mortar attacks over the past two months,” ISAF said in a statement.

Royal Marines and Afghan troops engaged in close fighting and came under heavy small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire while clearing the “well-fortified and high-walled” compounds, it said.

“Up to 15 Taliban were killed in operations in Kajaki district,” Mullahkhil said separately. He gave no further details.

Troops again came under attack on Tuesday. They called in close air support and targeted “the enemy firing point” in a compound, ISAF said in a statement.—AFP