Afghan police, US troops kill three Taliban
Sunday, 23 March 2008
SHAJOY, Afghanistan, Mar 22 (Reuters): Afghan police backed by US troops killed three Taliban fighters and captured three more in a 40-minute gunbattle in southern Afghanistan Saturday, a Reuters witness said.
The firefight erupted after some 40 Afghan police officers, backed by a small team of US mentors entered a village in the Shajoy district of Zabul province.
Taliban fighters fired on the troops before retreating to a nearby hill on motorcycles. The police and US mentors chased the militants and surrounded them.
At the end of the 40-minute battle, three Taliban were killed and three were captured, one of them wounded.
The United States is pressing its NATO allies to come up with more troops for Afghanistan at an alliance summit in Bucharest in early April. But all sides agree that building up the Afghan army and police is the key to long-term key stability.
The Afghan army is relatively well trained and equipped, but NATO has only filled 33 of 71 projected teams to bring the army from its current 50,000 troops to a target strength of 80,000.
The Afghan police has lagged far behind however. Officers are notoriously corrupt and often flee isolated outposts in the face of better armed Taliban militants.
The latest clash took place in the same province where a Romanian soldier was killed by an explosion Thursday.
The firefight erupted after some 40 Afghan police officers, backed by a small team of US mentors entered a village in the Shajoy district of Zabul province.
Taliban fighters fired on the troops before retreating to a nearby hill on motorcycles. The police and US mentors chased the militants and surrounded them.
At the end of the 40-minute battle, three Taliban were killed and three were captured, one of them wounded.
The United States is pressing its NATO allies to come up with more troops for Afghanistan at an alliance summit in Bucharest in early April. But all sides agree that building up the Afghan army and police is the key to long-term key stability.
The Afghan army is relatively well trained and equipped, but NATO has only filled 33 of 71 projected teams to bring the army from its current 50,000 troops to a target strength of 80,000.
The Afghan police has lagged far behind however. Officers are notoriously corrupt and often flee isolated outposts in the face of better armed Taliban militants.
The latest clash took place in the same province where a Romanian soldier was killed by an explosion Thursday.