KABUL: Afghan and US-led troops killed 20 insurgents in ground fighting and air strikes in the southern province of Helmand, the US military said Saturday.The clashes erupted Friday in the strategic Kajaki district after a patrol was ambushed, it said in a statement. "The combined forces returned fire with small-arms fire and called for close air support destroying six enemy fighting positions and killing 20 insurgents," it said.Afghan and international troops are working together to fight Taliban-led insurgents who control large swathes of Afghanistan, notably in southern provinces like Helmand.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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