By NNN-Xinhua,
Kabul : Over 15 insurgents have been killed in a failed attack on a military base of the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Uruzgan province of southern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led military said.
Militants attacked on Tuesday Afghan security forces at the base and the ensuing fighting between Afghan, Coalition forces and insurgents in nearby villages left several militants dead, said a statement on Friday issued from Bagram Air Field, a major Coalition base.
Hours later, the combined forces came under RPG (rocket-propelled grenade), mortar and small-arms fire near the base and in response fire and precision air strikes killed over a dozen more insurgents, it said.
The Coalition said there were no casualties on civilians or Afghan and Coalition forces in the incidents.
In neighboring Helmand province, Afghan security forces and Coalition forces on Tuesday killed several militants and detained five others, according to another Coalition statement.
The combined force while searching compounds in Kajaki district “identified a militant armed with a rocket-propelled grenade waiting in an ambush position and several militants consolidating for an attack,” it said, adding, “Coalition forces responded with airstrikes, killing the militants.”
Spiraling insurgency-related conflicts and violence in the post-Taliban nation claimed around 8,000 lives, mostly of militants, in 2007, the bloodiest year since the Taliban regime collapse in 2001.