US-led troops kill 34 militants in Afghanistan

The administration of President Obama has declared eliminating militant havens as a priority in defeating Al Qaeda and winning the war in Afghanistan. Insurgents use such areas as a base for operations, from which US military officials say they launch attacks on Western troops.

At least six insurgents wearing suicide vests blew themselves up during the battle, and one coalition member was wounded in the assault, the US military said in a statement.

Afghan authorities said they recovered 34 bodies, including 22 Arabs and Pakistanis, said Hamidullah Zuhak, a spokesman for Paktika's governor. They found personal documents on the bodies of those killed, he said.

Coalition troops were hunting for a rebel commander named Sangeen, but it was unclear if he was among those killed in the raid on the compound in Wor Mamay district, the US military said. The military alleges Sangeen plans and coordinates the movement of Al Qaeda leaders and that of hundreds of foreign fighters from Pakistan to Afghanistan, the coalition statement said.

Dozens of militants tried to repel the predawn attack on the heavily fortified positions, some using high ground to fire on the forces and forcing them to call in airstrikes, the coalition said.

Forces also uncovered a weapons caches containing rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, suicide vests, and other armaments, the military said.

In southern Afghanistan yesterday, a NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast, the military alliance said in a statement. It did not provide any other details about the location of the blast or the nationality of the soldier.

Also yesterday, arsonists burned down a boys' school in Daman district in neighboring Kandahar province. Two men attacked and tied up the school's two night watchmen and locked them in a room, then set fire to the surrounding buildings, according to Yaar Mohammad, one of the guards. Both guards managed to escape after the assailants left, Mohammad said.

No one was injured in the fire, but all the classrooms were destroyed, along with schoolbooks and Korans, the Islamic holy book, said Abdur Razzaq, the school principal.

Another boys' school in Kandahar city was hit by a rocket but only a wall was damaged, said Najibullah Ahmadi, the provincial education director.

Militants regularly attack government-run schools and their students in Afghanistan as part of their campaign to weaken the government's grip. Many of the harshest attacks have been on girls' schools, seen by extremists as antithetical to their brand of Islam, but boys' schools have not been immune.

As a result, scores of schools have been closed.