25 militants in Afghanistan killed by US-led coalition
Afghanistan security situation remains fraught
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Wednesday, 26, Nov 2008 03:45
Twenty-five militants have been killed in Afghanistan by coalition forces during raids over the past two days, the US military has said.
Some of the deceased insurgents have links to al-Qaida, it was claimed. No civilian or coalition casualties in these incidents have been reported.
Fifteen militants were killed in a raid directed against a known command and control centre for bomb-makers. a statement said. The operation on Wednesday morning in Kandahar province turned violent when insurgents began to fire at coalition forces.
Ten others were killed during two separate operations on Tuesday, one of which targeted a senior Taliban commander with ties to al-Qaida and other terrorist networks.
This raid in the eastern province of Paktya resulted in the death of five militants, though the statement did not clarify whether or not the Taliban commander was among the dead or detained.
The other operation on Tuesday, which also resulted in five deaths, as well as four arrests, was targeting the al-Qaida-linked extreme Haqqani network in the province of Paktika.
There are approximately 8,100 British troops and 33,000 US troops in Afghanistan, comprising the bulk of the international effort to fight Taliban-led insurgency. This number has increased since the Taliban was driven out of power in 2001.
This year's deteriorating security situation in the region has seen the deaths of more than 4,000 people, mostly insurgents.
The severity of the situation has prompted a rethinking of the plan to put an end to the insurgency, including allocating more forces to the politically sensitive Pakistan border.