KABUL: An insurgent commander from the Haqqani network and three other militants were killed in a firefight with NATO and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said Wednesday. Two NATO troops were killed Wednesday, one in eastern Afghanistan in an insurgent attack and the other in a roadside bombing in the south, the alliance announced. It did not provide the nationalities or exact locations. Ansari Khan, a Haqqani leader accused of conducting attacks on coalition forces, died in a clash in Khost province's Spera district in an overnight operation Tuesday, a NATO statement said. As the security force moved in on a compound, two insurgents threw a grenade and opened fire. Retaliatory fire killed four militants, including Khan, it said. The Haqqani network is a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to Al-Qaeda. The group was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a commander supported by Pakistan and the United States during the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Haqqani has since turned against the United States, and American military officials have said his organization, now effectively led by his son, Sirajuddin, presents one of the greatest threats to foreign forces in Afghanistan. Wednesday's NATO deaths brought to 30 the number of troops killed in October. At least 2,017 NATO service members have died since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, according to an Associated Press count. It has been the deadliest year for international troops in the nine-year Afghan conflict, and the escalating toll has shaken the commitment of many NATO countries, with rising calls to start drawing down troops quickly. In southern Afghanistan, Ahmed Khan, chief of Dihrawud district in Uruzgan province, was fatally shot by insurgents Tuesday at a market, according to Mohammad Naeem, the district police chief. Coalition forces captured a senior Taliban leader operating in southern Kandahar city on Tuesday, NATO said. The unidentified person distributed bomb components to Taliban fighters and facilitated attacks on Afghan and coalition forces, according to a statement released Wednesday. The embattled south is the scene of Operation Dragon Strike, launched last month by NATO and Afghan forces in areas around Kandahar province to flush out entrenched Taliban fighters and destroy their strongholds. In the north — where violence has surged in recent weeks — Taliban commander Shirin Agha and another militant were killed in a coalition airstrike in Kunduz province on Monday, NATO said. Afghan and coalition forces have targeted Taliban leaders throughout northern Afghanistan over the past month, with 18 commanders killed or captured, the alliance said. "Afghan and coalition forces have significantly reduced the insurgents' capability to effectively execute terrorist operations (and) will continue targeting those who stand in the way of peace and stability," said U.S. Army Col. Rafael Torres. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi has accused NATO of engaging in a propaganda campaign to demoralize the insurgents by inventing Taliban leaders and alleging they were killed or captured. "Most of the commanders' names NATO are using don't even exist," Ahmadi said recently. "This is just a game from the American side, nothing else." In the west, a joint force operation in Herat province killed "several" militants in a raid targeting an unidentified Taliban leader allegedly responsible for a recent ambush that killed two Spanish soldiers, NATO said. The force came under small-arms fire in Obe district and troops responded, killing the insurgents.
