80 Taliban killed in failed attack on NATO combat post in Afghanistan near Pak border

KHOST - Eighty Taliban insurgents were killed during a failed attack on a NATO combat outpost in Afghanistan near its border with Pakistan, an Afghan official said on Saturday.

“Fresh information that we received from intelligence sources shows that 80 Taliban have been killed. The bodies of the militants were left on the battlefield,” the Daily Times quoted Mukhlis Afghan, spokesman for the governor of eastern Paktika province, as saying.

Earlier, NATO had said that thirty Taliban had been killed when the international troops repelled an attack on the outpost in Barmal district, which sits on the border of North Waziristan tribal area.

A statement from International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that the insurgents launched the attack at 2200 GMT Friday “from all directions” using rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire, injuring five ISAF soldiers.

“The coalition forces called for air weapons team and close-air support during the engagement. A coalition aircraft engaged an insurgent firing position with three precision-guided munitions,” said the statement.

“The air weapons team also engaged a large number of insurgents near the outpost,” it said, adding, “Initial operational reporting indicates more than 30 insurgents were killed in the failed attack on the outpost.”

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that six police outposts had been overrun in the terrorist attack, and that eight Taliban fighters had been killed.

Speaking on telephone from an undisclosed location, Mujahid said that Taliban fighters had inflicted “high casualties” on ISAF and Afghan forces but gave no further details.

The Taliban and other insurgents such as the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network have launched a series of brazen assaults on foreign bases and government buildings in Afghanistan in the past year. (ANI)