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Battle leaves 23 Afghan insurgents dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-10 09:05
Insurgents trying to escape U.S. Marines took refuge in a cave and killed two
Americans during a five-hour battle in eastern Afghanistan that left an
estimated 23 rebels dead, the U.S. military said Monday.
The clash, which also involved American attack planes, was the latest in a
string of battles that the military says has inflicted heavy losses on militants
who have intensified attacks since winter snows melted.
US soldiers patrol Ghazni province in April
2005. Two US soldiers and up to 23 militants were killed in a clash in
eastern Afghanistan amid an upsurge in violence by suspected Taliban
rebels which has claimed more than 100 lives in the past
week.[AFP/File] | A U.S. statement said Sunday's battle began when a Marine unit checked on a
tip about insurgents operating in Laghman, an opium-producing area 60 miles east
of the capital, Kabul.
Insurgents opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades and then
split into two groups, one of which fled to a village and the other to a cave on
a nearby ridge, the statement said.
"U.S. Air Force A-10 aircraft engaged the insurgents in the cave and a squad
of Marines went afterwards to assess the situation," it said. "The two Marines
were killed while clearing the cave area."
The statement said two insurgents were confirmed dead and 21 more were
thought to have been killed. There was no word on any wounded from either side.
The names of the two Marines were withheld pending notification of families.
Their deaths brought to 143 the number of American troops killed in and around
Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in late 2001,
according to U.S. Defense Department statistics.
After a winter lull, loyalists to the ousted Taliban regime and other
militants opposed to the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai
have ramped up their insurgency with a string of attacks and bombings.
But the rebels have suffered severe casualties when U.S. warplanes have
caught large groups on open ground. Last week, battles in two southern provinces
reportedly killed 64 rebels, nine Afghan soldiers and an Afghan policeman.
American commanders insist they are grinding the insurgents down and
persuading villagers along the Pakistani border to stop sheltering them. They
also suggest an 18,000-member U.S.-led international force could be trimmed
after Sept. 18 parliamentary elections if a government reconciliation plan does
well.
Karzai and U.S. officials have said the reconciliation process is open to all
"non-criminal" Taliban and members of other groups. Officials say several dozen
former fighters already have come forward.
The head of a peace commission supposed to oversee the process said Monday
that the offer covered even Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and renegade
former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, both wanted as terrorists by the United
States.
Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, a former Afghan president, said he would negotiate
with any Afghan ready to lay down arms and recognize Karzai and Afghanistan's
new democratic constitution.
"Our commission is independent and we want to deal with all individuals," he
told reporters.
Mujaddedi said he had cleared his approach with the Afghan government, but
officials in Karzai's office declined to comment.
A U.S. spokesman, Col. James Yonts, said the military was studying
Mujaddedi's remarks, but suggested he had gone too far.
"Our position all along has been that those guilty of serious crimes must be
responsible for their actions," Yonts told The Associated Press. "We believe the
government of Afghanistan understands and supports that."
Mujaddedi said he didn't know where Omar and Hekmatyar are, but insisted they
are growing tired of being fugitives.
"If they come and join the peace process, we will see what their conditions
are," he said. "If they are acceptable for us and the government, we will accept
them."
Separately, the U.S. military said it had found no trace of a radio station
that a purported Taliban spokesman claimed last month was broadcasting near the
southern city of Kandahar.
"To date, we don't have any actionable intelligence that this radio station
exists," a spokeswoman, Lt. Cindy Moore, said.
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