- KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters)
- At least 17 people have been killed in clashes involving Afghan government
soldiers, Taliban guerrillas and U.S.-led forces in southern Afghanistan,
officials said on Thursday.
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- Ten government soldiers and two children were killed
on Wednesday night when 16 Taliban guerrillas in two vehicles attacked
a vehicle carrying the soldiers in the Nish area, some 60 km (37 miles)
north of Kandahar, General Atta Mohammad, a government commander in the
town told Reuters.
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- He said one Taliban fighter was killed and one wounded
in the clash in which one of their vehicles was burned. Mohammad said Afghan
troops and 12 soldiers from the U.S.-led force were pursuing the attackers
and two suspects had been detained.
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- Another official said at least four suspected Taliban
guerrillas were killed in the Nish area on Wednesday when helicopter gunships
from the U.S.-led force fired at their vehicle.
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- The official from the local branch of the foreign ministry
in Spin Boldak, a town close to the Pakistani border, said the guerrillas
had been returning from neighboring Uruzgan province a day after clashes
with Afghan troops there.
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- "They (Taliban) attacked several Afghan forces'
vehicles and looted local government commanders," the official said,
without giving further details.
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- More than 300 people have been killed in violence since
early August, the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taliban late in
2001. The casualties include Afghan civilians, aid workers and soldiers
as well as many suspected militants.
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- A U.S.-led force of 11,500 is hunting remnants of the
Taliban and the al Qaeda network it once sheltered. (reporting by Mohammad
Ismail Sameen in Kandahar and Saeed Ali Achakzai in Spin Boldak)
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