The seven-hour clash between coalition forces and Taliban fighters took place Wednesday, after they were ambushed while patrolling in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand Province, a coalition statement said.
Acting on an intelligence report of militant activity in the area, coalition forces then called in an air strike, the statement said. The battle left 24 militants dead, while two coalition soldiers suffered minor injuries, it said.
NATO and Afghan troops launched their largest offensive last month in southern Afghanistan to flush out Taliban militants from part of the opium- producing province. Scores of militants have been killed in a campaign launched to open the way for economic development and persuade Afghans to support the government of President Hamid Karzai.
‘‘We threw the first punch, and it was a good one,’’ said US General Dan McNeill, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. ‘‘We will continue to keep our hands up, hooking and jabbing and trying to dictate the terms.’’
However, the effort has been marred by mounting numbers of civilian casualties, caused by coalition forces as well as militants.
A NATO soldier shot at a vehicle in eastern Khost Province yesterday, killing a 12-year-old girl and wounding a 2-year-old, according to a provincial police chief.
NATO said the soldier opened fire after a vehicle moved around a line of waiting cars at a checkpoint and ignored verbal warnings and hand signals to stop.
‘‘They fired on the vehicle because they thought it might have explosives,’’ Police Chief Mohammad Ayub said.
In other violence, US special forces and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents disguised as police officers in western Herat Province, the coalition said.
The militants, wearing fake police uniforms, opened fire on the troops as they approached an illegal checkpoint on Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement. It said the coalition patrol returned fire, killing three militants and wounding three others.
The Afghan Defense Ministry reported that its troops were fired on by Pakistani forces as they tried to remove a fence near Bermal, a notorious hotspot for Taliban operations in Afghanistan’s Paktika Province. Afghan troops returned fire, it said.
A senior Pakistani military official reported that Pakistani troops fired warning shots at Afghan soldiers trying to cross the border from Bermal, but denied that any fencing had been removed.
Under pressure from the United States, Pakistan is fencing what it says are insurgent infiltration routes into Afghanistan.
