Dozens of Taliban killed

NATO and Afghan forces killed at least 80 insurgents who had crossed from Pakistan in the biggest battle of the winter, and Pakistan’s army fired artillery at trucks supplying militants in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

NATO tracked the suspected Taliban militants by air while they were still in Pakistan. Once they crossed the frontier, NATO and Afghan soldiers attacked the two separate groups with ground fire and airstrikes during a nine-hour battle that began Wednesday evening.

Gen. Murad Ali, the Afghan army regional deputy corps commander, said the insurgents traveled into Afghanistan’s southern Paktika province with several trucks of ammunition.

The overnight offensive in Paktika province appeared to be the largest battle since an operation killed more than 500 Taliban fighters in southern Kandahar province in September.

Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a U.S. military spokesman, said 130 fighters were killed or wounded in the attack, down from NATO’s initial estimate of as many as 150 dead. The Afghan Defense Ministry put the death toll at 80.

It was not clear why there was such a disparity in the estimates. As is common in Afghanistan, independent confirmation of the death toll at the remote battle site was not immediately possible.

Taliban militants last year launched a record number of attacks in Afghanistan, and an estimated 4,000 people died, the bloodiest year since the U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

Afghan and Western officials say the militants operate from sanctuaries in Pakistan, but Islamabad insists that it does all it can to stop them.

The Pakistani military has several checkpoints in the area where the insurgents crossed into Afghanistan.

Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said the army attack on the militants’ trucks Wednesday night shows the army can act swiftly with timely information.