U.S. soldier killed in clash with suspected Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. troops clashed with suspected Taliban near a remote outpost in fighting that killed one American and wounded two others, the military said Tuesday, the latest violence in Afghanistan’s increasingly virulent insurgency.

The battle occurred Monday near a coalition base at Shkin, just a few miles from the Pakistan border, an area that has seen frequent skirmishes, spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said from Bagram Air Base, the U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan.

“One coalition service member died of wounds received in combat and two others were wounded as a result of fighting,” Davis said in a statement. “Coalition forces killed two enemy fighters with direct small arms fire.”

The slain American was identified as Pfc. Evan O’Neill, 19, of Haverhill, Mass., according to a spokesman for his family, John Doherty, Director of Veterans Services in the town of Andover. The family’s number is unlisted and they could not be reached. The military did not release the soldier’s name.

The death brings to 36 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in Afghanistan, in addition to at least 164 that have been wounded. Davis said the soldiers were not engaged in Mountain Viper, an ongoing operation in the south and east of the country to root out Taliban fighters.

Taliban rebels have dramatically stepped up operations in recent months. They waged a fierce battle in late August and early September in the mountains of southern Zabul province in which an American special operations soldier died.

U.S. and Afghan military officials say well over 100 Taliban were also killed in that battle. Still, the ability of the Taliban to organize such stiff resistance has raised concern over the power of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai’s government to bring order to his war-ravaged nation.

Monday’s death came just ahead of a visit Friday by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Afghanistan to discuss the war on terrorism.

Suspected Taliban have also increasingly targeted Afghan government officials and international aid workers, who have been largely forced to suspend reconstruction projects in wide swaths of the country.

Last week, suspected Taliban ambushed a pickup truck in southern Afghanistan, shooting to death two Afghan aid workers. Four Afghans working for a Danish charity were tied up and shot to death in September.

Afghan soldiers recently beefed up their presence in Paktika province, where Shkin is located, apparently in response to increased Taliban activity.

“The Taliban are creeping over the border and making guerrilla attacks and then they’re quickly returning to Pakistan,” said Kashmir Khan, an assistant to the Paktika governor.

Shkin and another coalition base to the north in Khost, both along the porous border with Pakistan, have come under near daily rocket attack, and skirmishes are also commonplace. Afghan and Western officials say they believe Taliban fighters are hiding across the border in Pakistan, then crossing over to launch attacks.

Pakistan has been pressing the United States for equipment – particularly for helicopters and other aircraft – to help it patrol its side of the border, a lawless region where the government has little power.

“We told Americans that we need improvement in our mobility and surveillance capability,” Gen. Hamid Nawaz Khan, Pakistan’s defense secretary, said Tuesdaay. Khan attended a four-day meeting of the Pakistan-U.S. Defense Consultative Group, in Washington in September.

He said the American government has agreed to supply Pakistan with a variety of defense equipment – including F-16 fighter planes – once Congress gives its approval.

Some 60,000 Pakistani troops on their side of the 1,344 mile-long border are currently hunting for insurgents, trying to prevent them from cross-border raids.

On the Afghan side of the border, some 11,500 troops are in the U.S.-led coalition to hunt down Taliban and remnants of the al-Qaida terror group.

There are also an additional 5,500 NATO-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan. However, they are restricted to the capital, Kabul. NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium, are considering expanding their presence to other Afghan cities.

Karzai’s government has little authority outside of Kabul, where most areas are ruled by warlord-like governors who have their own militias.

The government is trying to build a national army that would eventually have 70,000 troops and maintain security throughout the country. But training is slow and the fledgling force has no more than 5,000 soldiers.