8 Taliban militants killed in missile strikes, gunfights

Four Afghan soldiers died in bombing in mountainous Chawkay district.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- U.S.-led coalition warplanes bombed a suspected Taliban camp in southern Afghanistan, killing three insurgents. Five more militants and one policeman died in a gunbattle nearby, officials said Tuesday.
The aircraft fired two Hellfire missiles and dropped one bomb late Monday on the camp in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province, killing three Taliban militants while another fled, a military statement said.
About 50 Taliban militants raided a police checkpoint late Monday in the nearby mountainous insurgent stronghold of Miana Shien district, about 50 miles north of Kandahar, local official Shabi Khan said.
The gunfight continued into Tuesday, leaving five Taliban and one policeman dead, Khan said. Two policeman also were wounded before the militants fled on foot into the mountains.
The U.S.-led military said in a statement that six Afghan police and seven Taliban fighters were also wounded, but it was unclear if any of the militants were arrested.
Roadside blast
In eastern Afghanistan, a roadside bomb blast killed four Afghan soldiers and wounded two others Tuesday, the coalition military said.
The explosion took place in mountainous Chawkay district, about 135 miles east of the capital, Kabul, during a joint Afghan-U.S. patrol, the military said.
The blast killed four Afghan soldiers instantly and wounded two. No U.S. service members were wounded.
The bomb was detonated by remote control, Kunar provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar said.
Some 2,500 Afghan and U.S. soldiers are conducting a joint military operation in Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, to rout out Islamic militants linked to the toppled Taliban regime and al-Qaida.
Stepping up attacks
Taliban militants have stepped up attacks against Afghan and coalition forces across the country in recent months, particularly in southern regions like Kandahar and Helmand, in a bid to disrupt U.S.-led reconstruction efforts here.
More than four years since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime, violent attacks led by Taliban militants are increasing, causing concern for thousands of NATO troops moving into volatile southern regions to take over from American forces.
"It is a dangerous mission, but NATO cannot afford to fail," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the alliance's secretary general, said Tuesday. "Realism demands that there will be more incidents, there will be more casualties, but NATO will stand firm."
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