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Coalition forces repel Taliban in two strongholds

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led forces used artillery and air strikes to kill more than 165 insurgents and repel massed assaults on coalition troops in two strongholds of Taliban militants and Afghanistan's rampant drug trade, officials said Wednesday.

The battles were in Helmand and Uruzgan provinces.

Nearly six years after a U.S.-led offensive toppled the Taliban regime for sheltering Osama bin Laden, violence related to the insurgency has escalated. More than 4,500 people, mostly militants, have died this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The two latest battles came amid a spike in violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and as the military makes a last big thrust against insurgents before colder weather forces a lull in fighting in the mountainous nation.

One of the battles was an assault by several dozen insurgents on a joint coalition-Afghan patrol near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in Helmand early Tuesday, which the U.S.-led coalition said set off a daylong fight that drew in more Taliban insurgents.

The coalition said its troops responded with artillery fire and attacks by fighter-bombers that killed more than 100 militants. One coalition soldier was reported killed and four were wounded. The coalition reported no civilian casualties.

Situated in the north of Helmand, Musa Qala and the region around it have been the front line of the bloodiest fighting this year. It is also the heartland of Afghanistan's illicit opium poppy farms.

The coalition said the second battle was in neighboring Uruzgan province, where more than 80 Taliban fighters attacked a joint Afghan-coalition patrol from multiple bunkers near the village of Kakrak and set off a six-hour fight Tuesday night.

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Bush praises Karzai

President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met in New York Wednesday to discuss worsening fighting in Afghanistan and growing opium production, insisting progress was being made. Karzai and Bush talked on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Despite the surge in Taliban activities, Bush said Afghanistan is becoming a safer, more stable country because of Karzai's efforts.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 00:31:49]