TWO US soldiers were killed in a complex attack on a base in south-east Afghanistan that ended with air strikes yesterday, the US military said, two days after a major operation against the Taleban was launched in the south.
The attack included an attempted suicide truck bombing of the base in the Zirok district of south-eastern Paktika province, local officials said. As many as 30 Taleban insurgents might have been killed in the air strikes, they said. It came after t
housands of US marines launched a major offensive in southern Helmand province, a Taleban stronghold and major opium poppy-producing area, on Thursday, the first big operation of US President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taleban and stabilise Afghanistan.
The marines and other forces have so far met little resistance and there have been no reports of big reprisal attacks by the Taleban or its allies since Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, began in Helmand.
Another seven US soldiers and two Afghan troops were wounded in yesterday's attack on the combat operating post near Zirok, Lieutenant Commander Christine Sidenstricker said.
"It was a complex attack that started with small-arms and indirect fire on the post, then an improvised explosive device went off," Sidenstricker said.
"Air strikes were called in sometime after," she said.
Hamidullah Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said a suicide bomber drove a truck towards the base during the attack but was shot before he could reach it. Explosives in the truck detonated during the shooting, he said.
Zwak said the soldiers died in the explosion but neither the US military nor the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan gave any details.
Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said "several Afghan and foreign soldiers were killed". There was no independent verification.
Zwak said about 30 Taleban fighters were killed in the air strikes but those figures again could not be verified independently. Afghanistan's interior ministry said about 20 insurgents were killed.
Yesterday's attack came in the same area where a US soldier was reported missing last week. The soldier has been missing since Tuesday and is believed to have been captured by insurgents.
Some of the most active insurgents in the area include the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, against which US and other Nato troops have launched a number of operations in recent weeks.
The network is allied with the Taleban and has been behind several high-profile attacks in attacks.
It is headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former government minister under the Taleban, although effective leadership of the group has passed to his more radical eldest son Sirajuddin.
The US marines launched their new operation in Helmand with violence in the Taleban-led insurgency at its worst since the austere Islamist group was ousted from government in late 2001.
The new operation was launched after years of stalemate in the south, which provides most of the poppy crop that funds the insurgency.
Presidential elections are due on 20 August.
