Nato and Afghan troops killed 70 suspected militants who attacked a military base in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside blast killed one Nato soldier and wounded eight others, the alliance claimed today.
Some 100 to 150 militants attacked a military base north of Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan yesterday, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a spokesman for the NATO-led force. The alliance and Afghan troops fought back for several hours with small arms fire, attack helicopters and airstrikes.
Seventy insurgents were killed, Knittig said, upgrading an earlier estimate of 55 dead. One Afghan soldier was wounded. It was impossible to independently verify the death toll at the remote battle site.
Today, a roadside blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded eight in Uruzgan, the alliance said. Three civilians were wounded.
Yesterday's fighting in Uruzgan province came a day after an international human rights group criticized Nato-led troops in Afghanistan, saying their tactics increasingly endanger civilians and are turning the population against the Western alliance.
Nato's top commander apologised yesterday for civilian deaths caused by fighting between Taliban militants and Nato forces earlier in the week, but claimed insurgents endanger civilians by hiding among them.
"Sadly, in asymmetric warfare, when you're battling an insurgency, typically the insurgents do not play by the same rules that we would like to play by," US Gen. James L. Jones said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch complained on Friday that NATO's recent operations have killed dozens of civilians, but it also criticised the Taliban and other insurgents for putting civilians at risk "by using populated areas to launch attacks on NATO and Afghan government forces."
AP