KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP):
Afghan and NATO forces battled Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's volatile south with rockets, artillery and air strikes killing 71 militants yesterday in one of the country's bloodiest clashes in five years.
Five Afghan troops were also killed in the series of battles, which started late Saturday and spilled into yesterday morning after the Taliban attacked a police convoy in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, said Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the district government chief.
In neighbouring Helmand province, a separate clash with insurgents yesterday left one British soldier dead and three others wounded, Britain's Defence Ministry said.
Police patrol ambushed
Militants ambushed another police patrol in western Afghanistan's Farah province, sparking a gun battle that left one officer and two attackers dead, a regional governor said.
Afghanistan's southern provinces are bearing the brunt of the worst bout of violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001. Taliban holdouts and allied extremists have stepped up attacks in a bid to undermine the American-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.
In Panjwayi, NATO troops used artillery and aircraft to inflict "heavy casualties against Taliban fighters," an alliance statement said.
Sizeable engagement
"It was a sizeable engagement," said Toby Jackman, a NATO force spokesman. He called the clash part of an ongoing operation "to extend security" along the 420-kilometre (260-mile) Kabul-Kandahar highway.
The bodies of 71 slain militants were found in three locations, scattered through orchards alongside their weapons, Sarhadi said.
"The police are still searching for more dead bodies of Taliban," he said.
Four police and one Afghan soldier were also killed in the clashes, officials said. Three police and five soldiers were wounded and three police are missing.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed insurgents killed "scores" of police and damaged 10 of their vehicles before a NATO air strike left just 12 militants dead and eight wounded.
Ahmadi often contacts journalists to claim attacks for the Taliban, but his exact ties to the militia's leadership are unclear.
