U.S.: 35 militants killed, 13 wounded in Afghanistan

KABUL — U.S.-led coalition forces killed 35 militants and wounded 13 others during a clash in southern Afghanistan, where insurgents killed eight truck drivers ferrying supplies for foreign troops, officials said today.

Violence is escalating in Afghanistan as additional U.S. troops move into the country and try to reverse the Taliban gains of the last three years.

A joint Afghan-U.S. coalition patrol was ambushed Thursday in Zabul province’s Day Chopan district, before returning fire and calling in airstrikes on the militants, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Following the clash, troops assisted the wounded militants before they were taken into Afghan custody. There were no injuries among Afghan or coalition troops, it said.

The clash follows another battle in the eastern Paktika province early Thursday in which 34 militants, including Arabs and Pakistanis, were killed.

Separately, militants stopped a convoy of trucks carrying supplies for foreign troops in Zabul on Thursday, killing eight drivers and torching two of their trucks, provincial deputy governor Ghulab Shah Alikheil said.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. President Barack Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to join the fight against the militants to reverse the Taliban’s momentum.