60 insurgents killed near Pak: NATO

NATO and US-led coalition forces killed 60 insurgents near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, in what was described as the largest..

NATO and US-led coalition forces killed 60 insurgents near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, in what was described as the largest insurgent formation crossing the region in six months, the military said on Saturday.

Pakistan’s army said a rocket fired during the battle hit a house on its territory, killing nine civilians, including three women and a child. It denied any insurgents had crossed the frontier.

NATO said militants attacked Afghan and alliance troops late on Friday in the Bermel district of Paktika province. NATO and US-led forces returned fire, killing about 60 fighters, an alliance statement said.

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“These individuals clearly had weapons and used them against our aircraft as well as shooting rockets against our positions…This required their removal from the battle-space,” said US commander Col Martin P Schweitzer.

Schweitzer said some munitions fired in the clash might have landed over the border in Pakistan, but insisted his forces only targeted “bad guys”.

A Pakistani Army spokesperson said there also were reports of civilians killed on the Afghan side. Several civilians, including women and children, straggled into Pakistan to seek medical attention, he said: “They are not militants. They are not armed, they are civilians who were wounded.”

Faced with growing public anger over civilian casualties at the hands of NATO and US-led forces, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday said “careless operations” had killed more than 90 civilians in the past 10 days. He did not comment directly on the border battle but said, “We don’t want any more military operations without coordinating them with the Afghan government”. He added: “From now onwards they have to work the way we ask them to work in here.”