AFGHANISTAN: Afghan and US troops backed by British warplanes pounded a mountain hideout in southern Afghanistan in a day-long battle that left more than 60 Taliban guerrillas dead.
The battle was the bloodiest engagement yet in a summer of escalating violence that has dimmed hopes for an early end to the Taliban insurgency.
British Harrier jets flew alongside A-10 "tankbuster" aircraft and helicopter gunships that strafed the "rebel haven" in Kandahar province late on Tuesday night, US officials said.
The British aircraft, equipped with laser-guided bombs, provided air support only, said Lieut Gemma Fullman, a British forces spokeswoman. "They did not drop any munitions," she said.
At least 12 Afghan police and soldiers died and five American soldiers were wounded in the operation, which continued yesterday. "This mission is an ongoing effort to take away enemy sanctuaries," a US army spokesman said.
The US-led coalition has killed more than 100 Taliban insurgents since the weekend, in addition to another 240 killed since early March. At least 29 American soldiers died in the same period.
Yesterday's search and attack operation, code-named "Catania", sought to flush out militants from a notoriously pro-Taliban mountain area straddling Zabul and Kandahar provinces.
Speaking from the scene of the attack by satellite phone, Gen Salim Khan, Kandahar's deputy police chief, said more than 60 Taliban had been killed and 30 taken prisoner.
"There are hundreds of Taliban in camps in the mountains. My officers have been spotting them and then the information is used by the American aircraft to bomb them," he told Associated Press. "Many of the rebels have started to flee the area."
The bloodshed, centred on the volatile south and southeastern provinces, bodes ill for next September's presidential election, which is seen as a crucial step in Afghanistan's shaky journey to stability.
Two months ago US generals dismissed the Taliban insurgency as fatally weakened following a quiet winter. They talked up a programme to entice rebels to the government side with an offer of amnesty.
But a recent surge in rebel violence, possibly supported by al- Qaeda, forced an abrupt change of tactics.
Last month a suicide bomber tore through a Kandahar mosque, killing 20. Almost every day, insurgents assassinate pro-government officials, elders and clerics, and coalition forces are faced with more powerful roadside bombs and more daring attacks.
Yesterday's coalition mission captured a group that had seized Mian Nishin, a district capital 250 miles southwest of Kabul, last Thursday, said Gen Khan, the deputy police chief.
The Taliban took 31 police officers hostage, executing eight. The fate of the other 23 was unknown.
The incidents caused a sudden deterioration in cross-border relations with Pakistan, made worse with the uncovering of a plot to assassinate the former US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Afghan officials blamed Pakistan for failing to crack down on militants sheltering inside the lawless tribal areas. Islamabad denied the charges.
President George Bush phoned the leaders of both countries to soothe tempers after a series of angry exchanges on Tuesday.
Afterwards Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf made a 15-minute call to Afghan president Hamid Karzai to assure him that "Pakistan condemned the menace in all its forms and manifestations", according to a statement released yesterday. - (Guardian service)