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Us afghan coalition left 5 militants dead Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Afghan forces press offensive after 50 Taliban killed
KABUL, (AFP) - Afghan troops backed by US-led coalition forces were Tuesday mopping up after an anti-Taliban offensive in violence-wracked southeast Afghanistan left up to 50 militants dead.
Local officials told AFP some 50 militants were killed Monday in an operation against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda bases in the Dozi mountains of Zabul's Daychopan district, 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Kabul.
"The clean-up operation is still going on in Dozi village and Dozi mountains," said Haji Sadow, secretary for Ayob Khan, security commander of Zabul province.
"The ongoing operation will continue for another 10 to 20 days," Sadow told AFP by satellite phone.
"If there is a need we will ask coalition forces to help us with air support, otherwise at the moment there is no need for foreign troops. Yesterday they helped us with air support."
Some 1,000 Afghan soldiers supported by dozens of coalition troops and aircraft carried out Monday's operation.
"In this operation 40 to 50 Taliban were killed and their bodies are still laying on the ground," Zabul provincial government spokesman Ahmadullah Watan Dost said late Monday.
Militant bases were "smashed to dust" by coalition bombing, he said, adding that there were no reported Afghan or coalition casualties.
It was not possible to independently verify details of the fighting in the remote and mountainous region.
Sadow said further operations were planned.
"There are a number of other places where we plan to launch operations but we cannot disclose information about the name and location and type of operations," he said.
The US-led military coalition said late Monday at least 14 militants were killed during a joint operation in neighbouring Kandahar province. It was not clear whether this was part of the same operation or a separate one.
"Afghan militia forces and coalition Special Operations Forces supported by A10s, AV8s and F16s (aircraft) engaged anti-coalition forces in the Kandahar province resulting in at least 14 enemy killed in action," US military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said.
There are no reported coalition casualties," he said.
The operation was launched after at least 14 people were killed in fighting over the weekend in Zabul and Uruzgan provinces where local officials said up to 300 Taliban were regrouping in the mountains.
Southeast Afghanistan is in the grip of a wave of violence from suspected Taliban fighters, who are believed to be regrouping in neighbouring Pakistan's remote border tribal regions.
In Paktika province, east of Zabul, hundreds of Afghan National Army troops backed by coalition forces were Tuesday carrying out operations near the Pakistan border where up to 33 people were killed in clashes a week ago.
"The clean-up operation led by coalition forces is going in three border districts," Paktika security commander Dawlat Khan told AFP.
More than 70 suspects were arrested but most were later released, Khan said, pointing out that most ordinary people are armed in the border area.
One US soldier died after a clash in Paktika on Wednesday, bringing to 31 the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan since the October 2001 start of the US-led assault to topple the Taliban regime which harboured terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
A 12,500-strong US-led coalition force is currently hunting fugitives from the Taliban and al-Qaeda, mainly along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border.
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