Multiple attacks in southern Afghanistan killed six militants and left seven coalition troops and an Afghan soldier wounded, the military said yesterday.
Heavy fighting broke out on Friday night in southern Zabul Province's Shahjoy district after coalition forces came under attack by small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, said coalition spokeswoman Captain Julie Roberge.
Five coalition soldiers were wounded, Roberge said, declining to disclose their nationalities. A suspected Taliban militant was also killed, she said.
PHOTO: AP
In neighboring Kandahar Province's Panjwayi district, coalition forces fought off attackers in different locations, killing an estimated five Taliban militants and wounding one, Roberge said.
Four other suspected Taliban insurgents were detained, she said.
Two coalition soldiers and an Afghan soldier were also wounded in the fighting, she said.
More than 10,00 Afghan and coalition troops are deployed across southern Afghanistan in a major military campaign meant to crush resurgent Taliban forces.
Also on Friday night, police in Kandahar City raided several Islamic religious schools, known as madrasahs, rounding up 125 students to check whether any of them were Taliban fighters in hiding, said police chief Azizullah Wardak.
About 100 students have been released after they provided identification cards stating where they were from, he said, adding that another 25 were still being held because they lacked documents.
In London yesterday, British Defense Secretary Des Browne admitted that the deployment of 3,300 extra British troops to the restive southern province of Helmand has "energized" the Taliban.
"It is certainly the case that the very act of deployment into the south has energized the opposition, and the scale of the opposition and the nature of that opposition became apparent when we were deploying," he told the Guardian.
Six UK soldiers have been killed since the troops began moving into Helmand in April. Following the latest death on Wednesday, Browne said that he was considering "as a matter of urgency" whether to send more troops amid concern that the current force is insufficient. An announcement is expected soon.
But he rounded on critics who said that Britain's role in Afghanistan was unclear, accusing them of putting soldiers' lives at risk.
"The objective is clear. It is to let the writ of the Afghan government run in the south, against a background that these provinces have been largely lawless for three decades, leaving the Taliban, drug warlords and militia to act with impunity and brutalize local communities," Browne said.
"We have always explained this was going to be very, very difficult and dangerous, and we have also explained that the purpose was to create the security space for reconstruction of the country," he said.
"People who criticize us have to ask themselves whether they want us to do it at all," he said. "We are doing this not just to secure Afghanistan ... but also to deny that space for al-Qaeda to deliver violence back to our communities."
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