By ANTARA News/AFP,
Kabul : The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said Friday its soldiers had killed more than 10 militants in an operation to find a Taliban rebel involved in bomb attacks and helping foreign militants.
The announcement came as a US defence official confirmed that two soldiers killed in attacks on Thursday were from the United States, which has about 33,000 soldiers in the fight against extremists in Afghanistan.
Soldiers searching for the wanted Taliban subcommander came under fire Thursday when they entered a compound in Kapisa, northeast of Kabul, the coalition said in a statement.
“The force returned fire, killing the militants,” it said, adding that more than 10 were killed.
The statement did not say if the targeted man, also accused of helping foreign fighters in Afghanistan, was among the dead.
Troops in the eastern border province of Khost meanwhile arrested two men it said were with the Taliban`s Haqqani network, the statement said.
The network, which spans the Afghan and Pakistan border, is headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a renowned fighter in the resistance to the Soviet occupation.
The US military says one of his sons, Siraj, also has increasing influence.A US missile strike inside Pakistan on September 8 was apparently targeted at the pair but failed to kill them although four mid-level Al-Qaeda operatives were killed, a Pakistani security official and a militant source said.
In the west of Afghanistan meanwhile, the airport in the city of Herat was closed after a rocket attack in the early morning, police said.
A man claiming to be from a group associated with the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP. He said six rockets had been fired at the airport, one of the busiest in Afghanistan.