Fighting in a volatile southern province killed 22 suspected Taliban militants, as the top European envoy in Afghanistan warned that a new NATO mission to pacify and help rebuild the region must not fail.
Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks this year, triggering the worst violence since the hardline regime's ouster in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden. The bloodshed has raised new fears for Afghanistan's fragile democracy.
The latest clashes, involving Afghan and US-led coalition troops and air power, took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in two districts of Helmand Province, also the hub of Afghanistan's huge trade in opium and heroin.
Militants attacked a coalition patrol with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Garmser district on Tuesday, but suffered seven dead, a coalition statement said.
On Wednesday, another five militants were killed and 11 wounded in a battle in Garmser with 200 Afghan police, said Ghulan Rasool, a district police chief.
And in Musa Qala district on Tuesday night 10 more militants were killed and 15 wounded by coalition and Afghan forces backed by air strikes, said Ghulam Nabi Nalakhail, Helmand's chief of police.
No security forces were hurt in any of the violence, official said.
The recent upsurge in violence has come as about 8,000 NATO forces have deployed in the south, mostly British, Canadians and Dutch, as part of the alliance's expansion across Afghanistan. It also has troops in Kabul and the north and west of the country.
On Wednesday, NATO nations in Brussels gave formal approval for the move into the southern provinces. NATO will take over command of the region from the US-led anti-terror coalition early next week.
Meanwhile, police on Wednesday were questioning four Afghans about the fatal shooting of a Canadian reconstruction worker, identified as Mike Frastacky, who was found dead in northern Baghlan Province on Monday. General Eawaz Khan, the provincial police chief, said there were no clear murder suspects or motives.
In western Ghor Province, police arrested a suspected Taliban cleric, Mullah Ahmed Shah, as a suspect in the Monday killing of an Afghan doctor and a driver for the international aid agency, World Vision, said provincial police chief Shah Jahan Noori. The aid workers were killed after they had made a medicine delivery.
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