2 killed in Afghanistan believed to be U.S. troops

Two soldiers believed to be American were killed and 13 were wounded Friday in a major clash in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, while fighting in the south was reported to have killed as many as 50 suspected militants and more than two dozen civilians.

A U.S. AH-64 Apache attack helicopter supporting the evacuation of wounded troops in the east made what NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, labeled a controlled landing after possible engine failure. Insurgent activity was reported nearby, and the Taliban claimed it had brought down the helicopter.

Nuristan provincial Gov. Tamim Nuristani said militants had ambushed international troops, sparking a fight that included airstrikes. He said he had a report that 25 militants were killed in the clash in Kamdesh district, which borders Pakistan.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said the fighting in Nuristan province killed an Afghan and two NATO soldiers and injured 13 of its troops, an Afghan soldier and a civilian. Neither NATO nor the U.S. military said whether the casualties were Americans, but no other foreign troops operate in Nuristan in large numbers.

NATO said another of its soldiers was killed in the south Friday, but the alliance didn’t say what nationality the soldier was or exactly where the death occurred.

Also in the south, international and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents and called in airstrikes, killing as many as 50 suspected militants and 28 civilians, including women and children, a local official and villagers said Friday.

The fighting took place in a remote and dangerous location, and there was no way to independently confirm the casualty figures.

As the fighting went on, tribal elders and clerics continued telephone negotiations with the captors of 22 South Korean Christian aid workers.

A purported Taliban spokesman said that some of the hostages were in poor health. The latest deadline the Taliban set to release some of its captured fighters in exchange for the South Koreans passed, and no new one was known.

One hostage, 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was found dead of gunshots Wednesday in Qarabagh, the district in Ghazni province where the hostages were being held.