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Attacks hit Afghan militants
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 14, 2006
BAGRAM, Afghanistan - Almost 2,100 militants have been killed in Afghanistan since Sept. 1 in operations involving coalition special operations troops, a U.S. Army spokesman said. That means more than half of the country's insurgency-related deaths this year have come in the last three months. About 900 of the 2,077 deaths came during Operation Medusa, a major offensive in September in the southern province of Kandahar. Special operations troops worked with conventional forces from Canada during the fight. The two primary missions for the U.S. special operations troops in Afghanistan are conducting counterterrorism operations and supporting NATO troops, Master Sgt. Clifford Richardson said this week at Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan. Nailing top fugitives like al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar is part of the mission of Operation Enduring Freedom but isn't the top priority of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force, which commands all special operations troops in Afghanistan, Richardson said. More than 500 U.S. special operations troops and 1,000 from other coalition countries operate throughout Afghanistan and outside the command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, unlike conventional U.S. troops now operating in the east. American special operations troops worked in tandem with conventional forces from Canada during Medusa. The number of militants killed in action since Sept. 1 - when the current U.S. special operations group arrived for an eight-month rotation - was confirmed through either physical evidence, such as body counts, or through multiple sources, Richardson said. About 4,000 people have died in violence in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from NATO, U.S. and Afghan officials. Those figures often come from remote battle sites and are impossible to confirm. Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks this year, particularly in the country's south and east, and have launched a record number of suicide and roadside bombs this year.
[Last modified December 14, 2006, 00:56:47]
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