21 Taliban reported dead in Afghanistan(Separately a NATO service menber found dead)

Source: AFP

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan and coalition forces clashed with Taliban militants Saturday in separate incidents in the east and south, killing 21 insurgents, officials said.

The police and Taliban engaged in a one-hour gun battle in the Alishar district of Khost province, said Wazir Padshah, a spokesman for the provincial police. He said NATO assisted with an airstrike, killing 11 militants. Three police were wounded in the violence.

Lt. Col. Angela Billings, spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, confirmed that NATO launched an airstrike early Saturday, causing some insurgent casualties. She said there were no NATO or civilian casualties.

~snip~

Separately, a NATO service member was found dead in his barracks room Friday afternoon, said an ISAF statement issued from Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul. The statement, issued Saturday, did not give any further details and said the cause of death is under investigation.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_as/afghan_violence

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FACTBOX-Security developments in Afghanistan, April 28
April 28 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 0800 GMT on Saturday:

KABUL - The Taliban said they had released a French woman aid worker abducted early this month, but there was no immediate confirmation from Kabul or Paris.

HELMAND - U.S.-led troops killed 10 Taliban after the militants ambushed a convoy in Gershk district of the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said.

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai marked the 15th anniversary of the defeat of communist rule with a fresh call to the Taliban to give up their insurgency.

HERAT - A soldier from the U.S.-led coalition force was killed in a clash in the western province of Herat on Friday, the force said.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL139926.htm

~snip~

Meanwhile, a soldier with International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was found dead in his barrack room on Friday, ISAF said in a statement.

The statement did not identify the soldier nor did it say the cause of death, but Billings said that it was a "non-combat incident."

Early Friday, a US-led coalition soldier was killed when his unit engaged with suspected Taliban militants in western Herat province, the US military said in a statement.

"Coalition forces employed a variety of combined arms to include close air support to destroy and repel enemy insurgents during the firefight," the statement said, but it did not say if any Taliban militants were killed during the fighting.

more:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/56927.html

Source: Associated Press

Ex-diplomat: Afghan's Karzai faltering

By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 18 minutes ago

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government,
tarnished by corruption and unable to control large swaths of
its own territory, is rapidly losing the support of ordinary
Afghans, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
Richard Holbrooke said Saturday.

Holbrooke said NATO, which has committed 36,000 troops to
Afghanistan, was at risk of losing the war against the Taliban.
The United States has deployed an additional 11,000 troops in
the eastern border region with Pakistan.

"I can sense a tremendous deterioration in the standing of the
government. Afghans are now universally talking about their
disappointment with Karzai. Let's be honest with ourselves ...
the government must succeed or else the Taliban will gain from
it," he told the Brussels Forum, an annual trans-Atlantic
security conference.

Taliban guerrillas have vastly expanded their activities during
the past year. Insurgents have now returned to many regions
outside their traditional strongholds in the east that were
rebel-free since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan