US-led troops kill 60 Taliban, 16 civilians

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 22 (Reuters) US-led forces in Afghanistan killed more than 60 Taliban fighters in attacks on their strongholds in the south today, the governor of Kandahar province said.

More than 16 civilians were also killed in the ground and air assault in Panjwai district of Kandahar, which came after several days of some of the heaviest Taliban attacks since they were ousted in 2001.

''More than 60 Taliban have been killed and many wounded. Sixteen civilians have also died and 15 are hurt,'' governor Khalid Assadullah told a news conference in Kandahar.

The US military said 20 Taliban had been confirmed killed. Up to 60 other insurgents were possibly dead, it said.

''Air strikes were used to destroy a large enemy weapons cache and several Taliban compounds,'' it said.

The US military was checking reports of civilian casualties, a spokeswoman said.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months but intensified sharply last Wednesday when the Taliban launched a big attack on a town in Helmand province, to the west of Kandahar.

More than than 200 people have been killed since then, according to figures from the U.S. military and Afghan authorities. Most of those killed were militants, but they include dozens of Afghan police and troops and four foreign soldiers.

A spokesman for the Taliban, who are fighting to expel foreign troops and oust the elected government, said none of their fighters had been killed today.

All of the casualties were civilians, he said.

Khalid said the 16 civilians had been killed in air strikes after Taliban took up positions in their houses.

''The Taliban used people's houses as their trenches. They were killed in the bombardment,'' he said.

NATO EXPANSION The surge in violence comes as NATO is expanding its peacekeeping force from 9,000 to 16,000, in preparation for taking over security responsibilities in the south from US-led forces.

The United States, which had been hoping to cut its Afghan force to 16,500, has 23,000 troops in Afghanistan, the highest number since 2001.

Foreign military officials say the Taliban and their drug-gang allies want to disrupt NATO's expansion into ungoverned parts of the south.

Nine of the civilians wounded in today's fighting were brought to Kandahar's main 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.

In the southern province of Helmand, to the west of Kandahar, residents said the Taliban ambushed a convoy of foreign troops in the Girishk district.

There was no word on any casualties and officials in the province, where British forces are overseeing security, declined to comment. A British spokesman said he had no information.

The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 after refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

REUTERS PG ND1616