Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL, Nov 26 (Reuters) NATO forces have killed 55 Taliban fighters in fierce clashes in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said today, while a suicide bomber killed seven Afghans at a restaurant in another part of the country.

NATO forces called in close air support after troops came under attack in the southern province of Uruzgan on Saturday, NATO said in a statement issued from the International Security Assitance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul.

''Initial battle damage assessment indicates that approximately 50 insurgents were killed in the attack. Regrettably, an ISAF soldier was also killed during the same incident,'' the statement said.

Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest period since US-led coalition forces overthrew Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.

The violence has seriously hampered development and reconstruction, raised fears that the Taliban were getting increasing support in the Afghan countryside, and reinforced perceptions that President Hamid Karzai has little control outside Kabul.

The nationality of the NATO soldier killed was not disclosed, but Dutch troops form the bulk of NATO presence in Uruzgan, a remote, rugged province, where support for the Taliban is strong.

Also on Saturday, in neighbouring Kandahar province, NATO and Afghan soldiers, backed by air support, killed five Taliban in another clash. Three alliance soldiers were wounded..

Reuters received several telephone calls from people living in the vicinity, who said more than ten villagers were killed by NATO bombing.

NATO officials denied those accounts, while Taliban spokesmen could not be reached for comment on their reported losses.

The suicide attack on a restaurant full of Afghans happened in Urgun district of southeastern Paktika province, bordering Pakistan.

The attack killed seven people and wounding others. All of the victims were civilians, but several provincial officials, including the district chief, were among the wounded, Paktika's governor Mohammad Akram Khpelwak, told Reuters.

''The bomber detonated the explosives attached to his body just after entering the restaurant,'' the governor said, citing officials and witnesses.

Taliban and their Islamic allies stepped up a suicide attack campaign a year ago as the insurgency gathered fresh momentum, confounding US generals who had been saying it was on its last legs.

So far this year, nearly 3,800 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, including scores killed in suicide attacks, and in operations by foreign forces across the country, according to the government and the UN estimates.

A quarter of the victims have been civilians, but hundreds of Taliban along with Afghan forces and over 150 foreign troops have also died in the violence.

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