U.S. kills five suspected Taliban militants

KABUL, Afghanistan – American warplanes killed five suspected Taliban militants in repelling nighttime attacks near the Pakistani border, the military said, while U.S.-led troops fatally shot an Afghan boy during a search for a bomb-maker Wednesday.

Gen. James L. Jones, NATO’s supreme operational commander who was ending a visit, described such attacks as “random acts of violence” typical of the war-wrecked country, but insisted Taliban and al Qaeda holdouts are not a threat.

“I don’t think we’re facing anything that remotely resembles an organized insurgency,” Jones told reporters at Kabul airport after meeting with President Hamid Karzai to discuss plans for NATO’s 8,500-member contingent to relieve U.S.-led forces in western Afghanistan.

Taliban-led militants are still operating along the mountainous eastern border with Pakistan despite the presence of 17,000 American soldiers more than three years after toppling the religious militia for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist operation.

There has been a string of recent incidents, including two bombings in southern Kandahar last week that killed five civilians and damaged three U.N. vehicles. But U.S. commanders insist the militants are a fading force.

In Tuesday night’s battle, planes scrambled after insurgents shot at least eight rockets at a U.S. base near Khost and rained rockets and gunfire on three Afghan border posts, officials said.

“Coalition aircraft killed five insurgents,” a U.S. statement said, adding that American troops also responded with artillery fire. No U.S. or allied forces were hurt, it said.

Mohammed Nawab, a senior Afghan commander, blamed Taliban or al Qaeda militants for the attacks and said the fighters approached from neighboring Pakistan.

“They also retreated in that direction,” Nawab said. He said his troops found the insurgents’ bodies and weapons Wednesday morning.

The boy died when troops from the U.S.-led coalition shot at a suspected bomb-builder and two armed men in a village near Asadabad in eastern Kunar province, the military said Wednesday.

“When it appeared that the insurgents were taking up firing positions, coalition forces engaged them with small-arms fire. The boy, who village elders said was a transient, was killed during the fire,” a second statement said.

Afghan leaders complain regularly of heavy-handed U.S. search operations, while U.N. officials have said repeated civilian deaths play into the rebels’ hands.

In a separate incident, seven people died, including two children, when U.S.-led forces tried to detain a suspected Taliban militant in a village near Pakistan, the military said today. The battle broke out Tuesday when soldiers went to the village in southeastern Paktika province in search of Raz Mohammed, who was killed in the firefight. Two alleged insurgents and an Afghan helping coalition troops were also killed. An Afghan woman and two children also died.