U.S.-Afghan raid kills 30 Taliban

KABUL, Afghanistan — A U.S. team working with Afghan soldiers swooped in on a militant stronghold in the country's west, killing at least 30 Taliban fighters, U.S. and Afghan officials said Monday. Elsewhere, a Taliban highway ambush left six truckers dead, and a roadside bomb killed another six Afghans in a crowded van.

In Pakistan, soldiers traded rocket and mortar fire with militants on Monday as hundreds of civilians fled the Taliban's and al-Qaida's main stronghold in the northwest.

A suicide car bomber killed five people including a prominent tribal elder.

During the Afghanistan battle, Farah provincial Gov. Roh ul-Amin said, no airstrikes were used.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has made protecting Afghan civilians a priority and sharply restricted the use of airstrikes.

Ul-Amin said 50 Taliban militants - but no coalition forces or civilians - died in the fighting, which he said began overnight and was still ongoing.

Maj. James Brownlee, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed an operation but gave a lower death toll of 30 Taliban militants killed. He declined to comment further.

On Sunday, Taliban militants ambushed a truck convoy in eastern Kunar province, killing six drivers and burning their vehicles, the Interior Ministry and provincial police said. A seventh truck driver was kidnapped in the attack near the Pakistani border.

The trucks were loaded with construction materials bound for a military base, said Gen. Khaliullah Zaiyi, Kunar's police chief.

"We have already told them whenever they move from one place to another, there should be a police escort," Zaiyi said. He said police were not informed about the convoy's travel.

"We have extra forces on the highways with extra checkpoints, but it is very difficult to control such ambushes," he said.

Also Sunday, a private van hit a roadside bomb in northern Faryab province, the ministry said in a separate statement. Six of the people inside were killed and seven others injured, the statement said.

In northern Kunduz province, which has seen a sharp rise in Taliban violence in recent weeks, the U.S. military said an Afghan civilian was killed and another wounded at an American-Afghan checkpoint after the vehicle failed to stop. The military declined to offer further details.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's civilian government has vowed to root out militants in the northwest, many of whom are believed to use the mountainous tribal areas along the border as a base for attacks on American and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan jets have bombed targets in Waziristan in recent months, but the military has said it would launch fullscale ground operations at the "appropriate" time.

Residents said the military and the Taliban had urged them to flee South Waziristan in recent days.

Sumsam Bukhari, the junior information minister, told reporters the launch of a major military operation in Waziristan was not discussed at a Cabinet meeting Monday.

"This is all speculative, and there is no such thing planned yet," he said.

In recent days, there's been an increase in the number of people leaving the Makeen and Ladha areas of South Waziristan, according to residents, though many have been fleeing to the relative safety of nearby towns for months.

"There is bombing everywhere," said Iqbal Mehsud, a resident of Ladha who was in a pickup loaded with luggage, two goats, a cow and a dog.

"There is a shortage of rations. Most of our people have left. It is now like a ghost area."

Tribal elder Maulana Hassamuddin said locals had been "asked by security people and the political administration" to leave. Resident Amir Ullah said the Taliban had also urged locals to flee.

He said he and his friends rented a vehicle to take them to the town of Bannu for more than double the normal price.

Information for this article was contributed by Kevin Maurer, Ishtiaq Mahsud, Zarar Khan, Asif Shahzad, Rasool Dawar, Hussain Afzal and Riaz Khan of The Associated Press.