Newsgroup: it.cultura.militare
Titolo: Clashes, airstrikes kill 12 militants in Afghanistan; 17 children wounded in bla

Clashes, airstrikes kill 12 militants in Afghanistan; 17 children wounded
in blast, officials say
FISNIK ABRASHI
AP News
May 13, 2008 04:39 EST
U.S.-led coalition forces called in airstrikes against the Taliban,
killing a dozen militants during fighting in southern Afghanistan that has
displaced many families, officials said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an old mortar round exploded in the north of the country,
wounding 17 children.
The coalition said in a statement that its troops opened fire and called
in airstrikes Monday after observing militants trying to set up an ambush.
The coalition had been targeting a Taliban commander transporting weapons.
The troops also discovered weapons and ammunition in a search of compounds
in the area, it said.
Fighting has intensified in the southern province of Helmand since U.S.
Marines pushed into the town of Garmser late last month aiming to cut
Taliban supply lines in the heart of the insurgency.
About 1,200 families — an estimated 7,000 people — have left their homes
in recent weeks because of the fighting in Garmser, said Mohammad Nader
Farhad, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
About 900 of those families have relocated to Lashkar Gah, the capital of
Helmand, and about 300 have moved to neighboring Kandahar province, Farhad
said. The families were staying with relatives and friends or in rented
houses.
Farhad said the government is assessing the situation, and UNHCR, along
with other U.N. agencies, is prepared to assist the families as needed
after the findings are complete.
Helmand Gov. Ghulab Mangal denied there had been a major exodus, but said
authorities would compensate all families whose homes were damaged or
destroyed during the fighting.
Mangal said about 150 militants, including foreign fighters from Pakistan,
Uzbekistan and Chechnya, have been killed since the operation began. He
said there are still about 500 insurgents in and around Garmser.
A U.S. military spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment on
the governor's claim.
In the northern town of Baghlan on Tuesday, a boy dropped an old mortar
shell that he was trying to exchange for ice cream with a scrap metal
dealer, said police officer Habib Rehman.
The shell exploded, wounding 17 children and a man. Fourteen of the
children were evacuated to a hospital in Baghlan. Three others were sent
to the nearby town of Pul-e-Khumri, said Dr. Narmgui from the Baghlan
hospital. Like many Afghans, Narmgui goes by one name.
Afghanistan is littered with old ordnance left over from decades of war.
On Monday, a rocket hit a house in the eastern Kunar province, wounding
two children and a man, said provincial deputy police chief Abdul Sabor
Allayer. He blamed insurgents for the attack.
At least 1,200 people — mostly militants — have died in insurgency-related
violence in 2008, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press of
figures from Western and Afghan officials. The U.N. says more than 8,000
people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence in
2007.
___
Associated Press reporters Amir Shah in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar
contributed to this report.
Source: AP News 
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 Clashes, airstrikes kill 12 militants in Afghanistan
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