Two foreign soldiers die in worst Afghan violence since Taleban

KABUL - Two foreign soldiers and 14 rebels have been killed in the latest clashes in the most serious spell of violence in Afghanistan since the Taleban were overthrown in 2001, military officials said yesterday.

The latest bloodshed came as the US-led coalition announced a major offensive against the Taleban in their southern heartland ahead of handing over the region to NATO troops to allow a reduction in US forces in the country.

An American soldier died in an ambush in the southern province of Helmand on Tuesday local time, said Major Quentin Innes, a spokesman for international forces in southern Afghanistan.

The ambush triggered a fierce clash in which coalition forces backed by helicopters and planes attacked Taleban positions.

"We believe 12 suspected Taleban were killed in the bombing," Innes said, adding that the coalition was assessing if there were any civilian casualties in the air strikes.

The US military said another foreign soldier had been killed in the eastern province of Kunar but did not give his identity.

Two Taleban fighters were killed in a gunbattle in the restive province of Zabul after they ambushed a US convoy, wounding two American soldiers.

Taleban officials could not be immediately contacted.

Almost 40 foreign soldiers have been killed in combat in Afghanistan this year, nearly 30 of them Americans.

They are among more than 900 people killed this year, more than 400 in May. Several thousand civilians have fled their homes in the south, fearing more fighting.

The Taleban are mostly active in the south and east where they still enjoy considerable popular support.

Colonel Tom Collins, a coalition spokesman in Kabul, said US, British and Canadian troops were launching Operation Mountain Thrust in the volatile and largely lawless south to combat the Taleban and extend the control of the government of President Hamid Karzai.

"Operation Mountain Thrust is not about just killing and capturing extremists and militants threatening the security of the Afghan people," he told a news conference.

"It is very much about establishing the condition for the government of Afghanistan that can extend authority in the areas where it currently does not have a presence."

He gave no details, including the number of troops involved, but said Operation Mountain Thrust could last several months, including reconstruction work.

The upsurge of violence is the worst since coalition forces backed by Afghan factions toppled the Taleban government after its leaders refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2001.

It coincides with the deployment of thousands of Nato-led troops in the south to allow the US army to trim its force from 23,000 to 20,000.

- REUTERS