64 militants, 10 Afghan soldiers killed in clashes
Pakistan Times Wire Service Send Flowers to Israel

KABUL (Afghanistan): The US military said on Thursday 64 militants were killed in the deadliest battles in nine months in Afghanistan, while the country’s new American-trained army lost nine men in an ambush.

Meanwhile, Afghan authorities said six men arrested for kidnapping three UN workers for a month during last year’s landmark presidential election had admitted the crime. An Afghan policeman also died and seven US soldiers were wounded in two days of fighting which began on Tuesday.

American warplanes and helicopters pounded militants in clashes in Zabul and Kandahar, two restive provinces in the south of the country. The Afghan troops died when insurgents ambushed their patrol near Spin Ghar in Kandahar province on Wednesday evening, the worst-ever loss for the new US-trained army, the Defence Ministry said.

US spokesman Lt Cindy Moore said the Afghans were killed after climbing out of their trucks. Warplanes from the US-led coalition were called in to help them, and 20 militants were killed in the ensuing battle, Moore said.

Three more Afghan troops and an American soldier embedded with the unit were injured, she said, adding six militants were detained. "We’re going out and aggressively looking for them (militants)," Moore said and added "It’s unfortunate that so many Afghan army troops were lost."

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said at a news conference on Thursday that more than 100 militants and at least 12 Afghan police had been killed in the past month, including an initial toll of 21 from the Zabul clash. Several civilians, a US soldier and a Romanian soldier also have been killed.

Also on Thursday, Jalali announced a possible breakthrough in the kidnapping of three UN workers in Kabul last year. Six men in police custody have confessed to the kidnappings and told authorities how they plotted the abduction, he said.●