By DPA
Kabul : An air strike by US forces in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 16 militants loyal to a wanted Uzbek warlord, while in the south of the country a suicide bomber missed a foreign military convoy and wounded three children, officials said Monday.
US-led coalition forces late Sunday conducted an air strike in the Soroobi district of south-eastern Paktika province, which has a long border with Pakistan, against a hideout belonging to fighters of Tahir Yuldash, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a provincial spokesman said.
“We had intelligence information that a group of militants had gathered in Haibati area of Soroobi district and wanted to carry out attacks, including suicide bombings in the province,” said Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, spokesman for Paktika’s governor.
“The US forces pre-empted with an air strike that killed 16 militants and wounded six others, the majority of them Uzbek and Chechen fighters,” Mohammadyar said. The forces also arrested one Uzbek militant who was slightly wounded while the rest fled the area before ground forces arrived.
Yuldash, who is also operational commander for the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan, is one of five wanted militants with a top reward of $200,000 on his head in a list released by the US military late last month. There were 12 wanted names in the recent list.
Meanwhile on Monday morning, a suicide bomber missed his target of a joint convoy of Afghan and NATO-led forces in the southern city of Lashkargha, capital of Helmand province, instead wounding three passing children, the police and the alliance said.
A vehicle belonging to the joint forces was slightly damaged in the blast but there were no casualties among the soldiers, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
A police official said that the bomber, who had strapped explosives around his body, died in the blast.
Separately, in the eastern province of Khost, one child was killed and two others wounded Monday close to an area used as a training range by NATO forces, the ISAF said in a statement.
“At this time, it is unclear as to exactly how the incident occurred, but the children were most likely in an area used by ISAF forces as a training range,” the statement said.
In the neighbouring province of Paktia, Afghan and coalition forces detained four suspected militants in an operation early Monday, the US military said in a statement.
The combined force, acting on credible intelligence, raided compounds in Gardez district where the suspected militants were hiding, the statement said.
“After conducting a search of the compounds, they found and detained four individuals with suspected ties to extremist forces,” it said.
Due to a rise in Taliban-led violence, more than 5,000 people, most of them insurgents but also including hundreds of Afghan and international forces, have been killed since the beginning of the year in Afghanistan.