US-led forces strike Taliban, up to 50 dead

KABUL, May 22 (Reuters) Aircraft from a US-led force in Afghanistan attacked Taliban strongholds today and may have killed up to 50 of the insurgents, a military spokesman said.

Residents of the area said up to 35 civilians were killed.

The attack was launched in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province where heavy fighting erupted last week between Taliban and Afghan and foreign troops.

''There was a coalition air strike ... as part of a coordinated operation against known Taliban strongholds,'' said the spokesman for the multi-national force, Major Scott Lundy.

''We believe up to 50 Taliban may have been killed,'' he said.

Lundy said there were unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties, which were being investigated.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan since last Wednesday, most of it in the south and east. Not including Monday's casualties, about 150 people, most of them militants, were killed.

The dead included four foreign soldiers -- two French, an American and a Canadian.

Residents of Panjwai district, about 25 km (16 miles) southwest of Kandahar town, said several homes were destroyed in the air strikes.

Nine wounded civilians from the district, three children, two women and four men, were brought to Kandahar's main hospital.

''I think up to 35 civilians have been killed and more than 40 wounded,'' said Atta Mohammad, an elderly man who accompanied the wounded to the hospital.

A wounded boy, Daad Mohammad, said all seven members of his family were killed.

''They are all dead,'' he told Reuters from his hospital bed.

Afghan government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Taliban, ousted in late 2001 after refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, have intensified their insurgency to expel foreign troops and defeat the elected government.

REUTERS CH RK1125