U.S. and Afghan Troops Corner Taliban in Cave

Afghan and U.S. troops overran three suspected Taliban positions and pinned down fighters in a cave Tuesday as fighting raged in the remote southern mountains, the U.S. military and an Afghan commander said.

U.S. bombing echoed through the mountains as the troops tried to root out hundreds of Taliban holdouts who have put up fierce resistance for a week.

Coalition forces clashed with groups of five to 10 fighters firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, U.S. military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said.

The troops had cornered a group of insurgents in a cave and were attacking them Tuesday afternoon using small-arms fire, artillery and air support.

There were no reported coalition casualties in the latest fighting in Zabol province’s Dai Chupan district, Davis said. He had no details on Taliban casualties.

U.S. warplanes and helicopter gunships hammered Taliban positions before dawn. When Afghan troops moved in later, they found the Taliban had abandoned three positions, leaving behind bedding and turbans, said Gen. Haji Saifullah Khan, the main Afghan commander in the battle area.

Taliban fighters were hunkering down elsewhere in the area’s many gorges, and Maulvi Faizullah, a senior Taliban commander involved in the fighting in Zabol, said 300 reinforcements had been sent in from Khowst province.

The reinforcements were being led by former Taliban Education Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, Faizullah said.

The military said U.S. special operations forces and troops from the Army’s 10th Mountain Division were involved in the battle, dubbed Operation Mountain Viper, along with close air support. The military would not say how many U.S. troops were involved in the fighting, though Afghan officials have put the number at several hundred.

One U.S. soldier died Friday when he fell during a night combat mission. Two other U.S. soldiers died Sunday in a gun battle in eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. Four suspected Taliban fighters were killed in that battle.

Those deaths brought to 35 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan, in addition to 162 wounded, the U.S. military said.