NATO: 'As many as 150' fighters killed in eastern Afghan battle

Thursday, January 11th 2007, 6:11 am

By: News On 6

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) _ As many as 150 insurgents were killed in a battle in eastern Afghanistan after two large groups of fighters crossed the border from Pakistan, NATO said Thursday.

The fighters were attacked with ground fire and airstrikes, NATO said. Gen. Murad Ali, the Afghan army regional deputy corps commander, said the insurgents had traveled into Paktika province with several trucks of ammunition.

A NATO statement said ``initial battle damage estimates'' indicated that as many as 150 fighters were killed. Ali said more than 50 fighters were killed late Wednesday and early Thursday. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, estimated the toll at 80.

It was not clear why there was such a disparity in the estimates. Independent confirmation of the death toll at the remote battle site was not immediately possible.

Dr. Muhammad Hanif, who claims to speak for the Taliban, said in a text message to an Associated Press reporter in Pakistan that the figure of 150 dead was ``a complete lie.''

``The Americans want to boost morale of their troops while making such claims,'' the message read.

Azimi said one Pakistani fighter was wounded and captured. Rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns were also recovered, he said.

Taliban militants last year launched a record number of attacks, and an estimated 4,000 people died in insurgency-related violence, the bloodiest year since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The fight in the Bermel district of Paktika province is the first major engagement of 2007 and appeared to be the largest battle since a multi-day operation killed more than 500 suspected Taliban fighters in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province in September.

NATO did not say how it estimated that 150 fighters were killed. In early December, NATO said it had killed 70-80 fighters in the southern province of Helmand but days later said that only seven to eight were killed.

Meanwhile, NATO forces called in airstrikes on Taliban positions during a clash in the village of Gereshk in Helmand province on Wednesday, said Ghulam Nabi Mulahkhail, a local police chief.

Among those killed was a local Taliban group commander identified as Mullah Faqir Mohammad, the police official said. One Afghan soldier was wounded and evacuated to a NATO medical facility, the alliance said in a statement.

Troops recovered weapons and ammunition in the militant compound, the statement said.

In Pakistan, Gen. David Richards, senior commander of NATO's 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, said after his meeting Thursday with top Pakistan and Afghan army commanders in Islamabad that ``we are confident that this conflict is winnable.''

``There are problems ... but we are confident that we can deal with them,'' he said, referring to the cross-border insurgency by the Taliban.

He compared the porous Pakistani-Afghan border with the problems British troops faced in Northern Ireland with the IRA before the Good Friday peace accord of 1998.

``That is an 84 mile border, and not even in that campaign we managed to fully control it,'' Richards told reporters after the tripartite meeting meant to coordinate military activities in the region.

The Pakistani-Afghan border is ``2,500 kilometers long, with mountains that are very hard to control,'' he said, adding that Pakistan's increased control of the frontier ``to a degree'' contributed to what he said was reduced activity of the Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

``Today, a number of incidents have declined dramatically in relation to last summer,'' Richards said, referring to the overall war situation in Afghanistan.