|
Kabul: Nato military aircraft supported Afghan police in a 12-hour firefight in western Afghanistan that killed at least 10 militants, Nato's International Security Assistance Force said on Monday.
Afghan officials claimed a much higher death toll, saying dozens of militants were killed.
A spokesman for the police in western Afghanistan, Haji Raouf Ahmedi, said 150 militants attacked a police checkpoint Sunday, triggering the daylong battle in Murghab
district, near the border with Turkmenistan.
Ahmedi said 46 militants were killed and 30 wounded, though he said police recovered the bodies of only five militants. Asked how he knew 46 were killed, Ahmedi replied, "We have reports."
Ahmedi said one policeman was also killed.
The governor of Badghis province, Ashraf Nasery, said 49 militants were killed and 35 wounded. He attributed the death toll to "intelligence reports."
He labeled the militants "the enemies of Afghanistan" but offered no more clues as to who they were.
A spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul said the alliance had reports of 10 militants killed in the battle. He said ISAF media rules prevented him from giving his name.
It was not possible to get independent confirmation of the toll at the remote battle site. Afghan officials have on occasions in the past exaggerated militant death tolls.
It was the second time in two days that Afghan officials made claims of large numbers of militant deaths.
On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said Afghan forces had killed more than 100 militants in a three-day fight in Farah province, but no officials could say how they reached that toll, and two admitted that no bodies were left on the battlefield to
count.
But the fighting in the two remote areas of the country - in Badghis and Farah - could signal a new strategy by militants to attack areas where Nato and US forces have
little presence.
The majority of Nato's fighting forces are centered in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan, far from the attacks in Badghis and Farah. Nato and US troops are in
the country to battle Taliban militants trying to bring down the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Militant fighters the last two years have stepped up attacks on the country's fledgling police, who have little training and weaponry. Last year more than 900 police were
killed in militant attacks.
|
