March 26, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1428

KHOST, March 25: US-led coalition troops and Afghan forces killed 23 Taliban militants in two separate clashes in south and southeastern Afghanistan, Afghan army and coalition officials said on Sunday.

A group of armed Taliban attacked an Afghan and coalition base in the Lawara area of Gian district in Paktika province early on Sunday, sparking a three-hour gunbattle, regional Afghan army commander Mohammad Akram Sami said.

“Coalition forces killed 12 insurgents near Fire Base Tillman in Paktika Province last night,” said a coalition press statement.

Sami had earlier said they killed seven militants and their bodies were left at the site, while two wounded insurgents were arrested, one of them a Pakistani national. Coalition forces called in aviation support and indirect artillery fire to support the defence of the fire base, the statement said.

Two coalition and two Afghan soldiers were slightly wounded in the attack and one of the Afghan soldiers was medically evacuated for further treatment at a coalition medical treatment facility, it said.— AFP