US-Afghan clashes kill 60 Taliban

WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. military says clashes with extremists in southern Afghanistan in the last two days have killed 60 enemy fighters.

Another 20 have been captured in two separate offensive operations on Wednesday and Thursday.

Sixteen Afghan National Police were killed and 20 wounded in a Wednesday battle in the village of Musa Qalah in Helmand province.

In a separate engagement in Godale Shamshir in Ghazni Province on Thursday, ANP and Coalition forces fought some three-dozen extremists with armed with guns and mortars. One Afghan police officer and one enemy combatant were killed in the firefight. U.S. aircraft provided close air support and conducted strikes on enemy positions, according to the U.S. military.

U.S. and Afghan military officials in Afghanistan said Taliban extremists have been gathering in villages in southern and central Iraq.

"The governance of Afghanistan out in the districts gives us a sense that the number of Taliban fighters in certain districts in the northern Kandahar, Helmand and Oruzgan area may have increased over the past several months," said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan on May 10.

Lt. Gen. Sher Karimi, chief of operations for the Afghan National Army, said May 4 there would be an increase in fighting in the mountains with the onset of a new spring offensive.

"From the beginning of the winter, we've been foreseeing this, that once the weather gets warmer, the enemy will be more able to operate in the rugged terrain and sustain in that area," he said.