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Attack On Taliban Kills 30 Militants

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The Associated Press

Published: August 23, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led troops attacked a compound where Taliban leaders were meeting and killed 30 militants, American and Afghan military officials said Friday, but the Interior Ministry said a large number of civilians died. The United States said it would investigate.

The coalition was striking back against insurgents opposed to the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai who have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan troops.

The coalition said its troops called in airstrikes on the compound in the Shindand district of western Herat province Thursday.

Some 30 militants were killed and five others were detained, a spokesman, 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, said. The troops found a haul of weapons and ammunition inside the compound, he said.

Afghan officials issued contradictory statements about what had happened and it was not immediately clear why they offered such differing accounts.

An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zaher Azimi, confirmed the clash, but said five of the 30 dead were civilians.

A U.S. military spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, said that a thorough assessment was done and that the coalition knew it killed 30 militants, including a Taliban leader.

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