Nato counter-attack kills '72 Taliban'
Nato assumed security responsibilities in Afghanistan earlier this summer
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Sunday, 20, Aug 2006 09:29
More than 70 Taliban militants are thought to have been killed in southern Afghanistan after Nato troops responded to an offensive by the arch-conservative Muslim group.
The death toll has not yet been independently verified, but senior officials in the Panjwayi district in Kandahar province have indicated that 72 Taliban fighters died, as well as four Afghan policemen.
Fighting broke out in a bazaar in the southern region of the country in the early hours of this morning, local official Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi told news agencies.
He said that Taliban militants had initially attacked a position held by the international security assistance force (Isaf), but that Nato troops had received air support as they fought back.
However, unconfirmed reports from a Taliban spokesman said that only ten militants had died in the clash.
Yesterday four foreign troops and one Afghan soldier were killed in two separate incidents in the country's troubled southern provinces.
Isaf has been responsible for security concerns in the southern regions since taking over from the US-led coalition earlier this month, but Taliban militants are enjoying renewed support in the mountainous area in the bloodiest period of violence since being toppled by the US five years ago.