More than 40 insurgents said killed in Afghan clash

KABUL, July 10 (Reuters) U S and Afghan government forces today killed more than 40 suspected Taliban in a ground and air assault on a militant stronghold in the south of the country on Monday, the U S military said.

U S-led troops have mounted offensives in Afghanistan's south and east over recent weeks in response to the bloodiest phase of Taliban violence since the Islamists were ousted in 2001.

The surge in violence has raised concern for a NATO peacekeeping mission that is due to take over some of the most dangerous parts of the country from U S-led troops this month.

Britain was due to announce it was sending more troops to Afghanistan to join the 3,300 who have encountered much more violence than expected in the Afghan south.

U S-led coalition and Afghan forces attacked the insurgent compound in Uruzgan province after coming under small-arms fire, the U S military said.

''Afghan national security forces and coalition troops conducted a raid on a known extremist compound July 10, killing more than 40 extremists,'' it said in a statement.

One member of the Afghan force was killed and three US-led coalition soldiers wounded in the attack, 10 km north of the provincial capital, Tirin Kot.

''The enemy frequently used the compound as a sanctuary to conduct operations against local Afghans, government officials and coalition forces,'' the U S military said, adding there were no reports of civilian casualties.

Small groups of Taliban have infiltrated across large parts the south and east and unleased their most intense wave of bombings, ambushes and raids as the NATO peacekeeping force prepares to take over in the south.

''NO OPTION'' The US-led coalition has responded with offensives to push the insurgents back. Hundreds of people, most of them Taliban, have been killed in the past two months, according to U.S. and Afghan figures.

In separate incidents, gunmen attacked a police post about 30 km southwest of Kabul yesterday night. Nine attackers were wounded and captured, the Interior Ministry said.

Two rocket-propelled grenades were fired at a NATO base in Kabul on Sunday evening. No one was hurt, the force said.

The violence nearly five years after the Taliban were ousted has taken the government and its Western backers by surprise.

The United States had been hoping to trim its troops numbers in Afghanistan but now has about 23,000, the most since its involvement began in 2001.

The NATO force is due to expand into the south, taking command of British, Canadian and other troops now with the U.S.-led force. NATO will then have 18,500 troops in Afghanistan.

''These are difficult times for Afghanistan ... but backing away is not an option,'' the UN special representative for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, told a news conference.

The international community had to help Afghanistan build up its security forces, ensure that aid reached everyone and tackle the logistical and ideological support the Taliban got from militant networks in Pakistan, he said.

The Taliban are being fuelled by drug money and benefit from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border. They are also capitalisting on dissatisfaction with a government many say has failed to help them, analysts say.

Reuters SY DB2112