Air raids 'target Afghan villages'

by Al Jazeera (reposted)

Tue, May 15, 2007 8:41AM

Air attacks by foreign forces have killed 60 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province overnight, the provincial police chief has said.

Esmatullah Alizai said the assaults hit three villages in the province late on Monday while ground troops entered the villages on Tuesday.

"Sixty Taliban militants were killed in a Nato-led aerial operation last night on a Taliban gathering point in Zahri district of Kandahar province," Alizai said.

The dead included three well-known Taliban commanders, he said.

Zahri, about 30km east of Kandahar city, has been a flashpoint for fighting.

The media office of Nato's International Security Assistance Force said it did not immediately have information about the incident.

Taliban version

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, quoted Taliban sources as saying that the air strikes had killed seven people.

The Taliban claimed all those killed were civilians attending a wedding party, Bays said.

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http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/219852A2-35BA-4546-BCFD-BA9194BC9873.htm

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