17 Militants Killed in Afghan Battle
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KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led forces backed by warplanes killed 17 Taliban militants in a battle in the heartland of the former ruling militia in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military confirmed Friday. Three Marines were slightly wounded.
Afghan officials said earlier that 13 Taliban fighters were killed and eight were wounded and captured.
The battle began late Wednesday in the mountains of Kandahar province and ended Thursday.
A military spokeswoman, Master Sgt. Cindy Beam, said that 17 enemy combatants were killed and three U.S. Marines were slightly wounded in the fighting and that U.S. warplanes had joined the fray. She gave no other details.
Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial government, said Thursday that about 300 Afghan troops and a smaller number of Americans skirmished with gunmen in Kandahar’s Miana Shien district.
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