Air strikes: NATO claims killing at least 40 insurgents

Operations in Kunar province launched after a joint patrol of Nato and Afghan troops was ambushed.

KANDAHAR: The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement on Sunday that its troops called in air strikes in the eastern Kunar province after an “imminent threat” was determined, killing more than 25 insurgents.

The operations were launched early Sunday after a mixed patrol of Nato and Afghan troops was ambushed by Taliban militants in the district of Sarkano.

At least 15 more insurgents were killed in other engagements in Kunar,  Helmand and Kandahar, Isaf said.

In Gardez in the east, armed police and protesters fired at each other and burning tyre barricades filled the streets with smoke. Six civilians and two policemen were wounded, said Nader Noori, doctor at the Gardez hospital. Local officials in Kunar said an Isaf air strike killed seven road workers overnight. Isaf said Afghan and foreign troops were approached and then fired on by armed men while hunting an insurgent and shot back, killing seven.

The suicide attack on Saturday was in northern Kunduz province, an area that was quite peaceful for many years but where the insurgency is now spreading fast. It is also used as a springboard to launch attacks in other provinces.

Despite the presence of about 150,000 foreign troops, casualties in Afghanistan have increased rapidly this year.

According to UN figures, 1,271 civilians were killed in the first six months of this year, up by a fifth on the same period in 2009. About 680 troops have been killed in 2010, around a third of the number killed since the start of the war.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2010.