By Xinhua,
Kabul : Approximately 17 militants have been killed as they attacked an Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) and Coalition force reconnaissance patrol in southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, the U.S.-led Coalition forces said Friday.
While investigating an area with suspected militants’ hideouts in Tarin Kowt district, the Afghan and Coalition combined patrol was ambushed by militants Thursday and after the militants’ positions were identified, Coalition aircraft were called in to conduct a precision air strike there, the Coalition said in a statement.
On Friday morning around 100 militants again attacked ANSF and Coalition forces with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenades and then fled into a nearby village, it said, adding that the Coalition aircraft targeted the “positively identified enemy position” with one more precision strike.
The U.S.-led military did not say if there were casualties on the combined patrol or civilians.
Around 20,000 multi-national Coalition forces, with U.S. troops being the backbone, are deployed across Afghanistan to conduct anti-insurgents mission and help in reconstruction.
Intensified insurgency-related conflicts and violence so far this year has left over 1,500 people dead in the war-battered country where the Taliban-led anti-government elements continue a years-long insurgency through guerrilla-style bombing attacks and ambushes.