By Xinhua,
Kabul : Battles between Taliban-led militants and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in Afghanistan’s troubled Helmand province have claimed the lives of more than 100 insurgents over the past three days with 64 of them killed on Sunday, a spokesman of the provincial administration said.
“Taliban militants launched a three-pronged attack on Helmand’s provincial capital of Lashkar Gah in the wee hours of Sunday and the troops with the support of NATO air power pounded their positions leaving 64 dead,” Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman told Xinhua.
The fierce attack, he added, took place at 1:00 a.m. and in retaliation, the ANSF with the support of NATO’s helicopter gun ships targeted the rebels, killing 64 of them on the spot.
Ahmadi also stressed that 40 more rebels had been killed in another operation which has been continuing in Nadali district over the past three days.
The spokesman emphasized that there were no casualties on the Afghan troops.
Meanwhile, the ISAF said in a statement released on Sunday that the ISAF took action to interdict a combined attack planned by enemy forces against an ANSF compound in Lashkar Gah district.
“Insurgents were seen gathering on the outskirts of the town, prior to launching a mortar attack while the ANSF and ISAF forces worked together to counter this aggression,” the statement said.
“During this counterattack, ISAF forces successfully conducted an air strike in which multiple enemy forces were killed,” it said.
Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, an ISAF spokesman, noted “if the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure.”
However, Taliban militants, fighting Afghan and NATO troops, have yet to make comment.
Spiraling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have left more than 4,500 people, mostly insurgents so far this year in Afghanistan.