September 02, 2007	Sunday	Sha'aban 19, 1428

KABUL, Sept 1: The US-led coalition said on Saturday that nearly 50 people had been killed in strikes against militants, including in villages near Pakistan, where their leaders were said to have taken refuge.

The militants were targeted in three major engagements on Friday.

More than 20 were killed in an air and ground assault on compounds in north-eastern mountains about 6km from Pakistan, it said in a statement.

A coalition soldier was wounded and 11 suspects arrested in the raid in Nuristan, it said.

The strike was launched after ‘credible intelligence’ that villages in the area were being used by militant leaders travelling between Pakistan and Afghanistan, it said.

A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that 40 civilians were killed but the coalition said it had no reports of casualties among non-combatants.

Almost two dozen militants were killed near a Taliban stronghold in Helmand, the coalition said. Another seven militants were killed in fresh fighting on Saturday in the same area, the Musa Qala district.

In Ghazni, ‘several’ fighters were killed and six men detained in an operation aimed at a man accused of helping foreign fighters move around Afghanistan, a statement said.—AFP