Dozens of Insurgents Killed in Fighting
More than 40 insurgents were killed as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped by helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S. forces battled militants across southern Afghanistan, officials said.
Before dawn, more than 300 British paratroopers, backed by hundreds of U.S. and Canadian forces, launched a raid in Sangin, where hundreds of Taliban fighters had massed in preparation for attacks, said Maj. Scott Lundy, a Canadian military spokesman.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military agreed to assist an Afghan government investigation of reports that a coalition air raid killed civilians Monday in the southern province of Oruzgan. The military said the operation killed 40 extremists, but residents said at least four civilians died.
President Hamid Karzai also ordered new inquiries on fresh violence in Helmand province -- the air assault on the insurgent stronghold of Sangin and Wednesday’s fighting in nearby Nawzad. At least 29 insurgents died in the two clashes.
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