Afghan soldiers conducting a sweep in a mountain area south of the capital exchanged fierce fire with suspected Taliban rebels, killing eight and capturing 16 in some of the heaviest fighting in months, officials said yesterday.
Mohammed Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan defense ministry, said US warplanes joined in the battle on Monday in the mountains of southern Zabul Province. A spokesman in the Zabul governor's office, Ali Khail, said Chechens and Arabs were among those killed and captured.
Khail also said the US military provided air support for the Afghan forces, and that some of the captured militants were turned over to US custody.
A spokeswoman for the US military, Lieutenant Cindy Moore, said that as of Monday night she had received no reports of fighting in the area involving US forces. The region is extremely remote, and there was no way to immediately reconcile the stories.
In another incident, suspected Taliban rebels ambushed a patrol of Afghan soldiers in Oruzgan Province, sparking a one-hour firefight, a senior official said.
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