150 Taliban militants killed in major assault

Heli-dropped US and Afghan forces killed up to 150 Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in a surprise major assault along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

A force of about 700 US and Afghan troops flown into the area by Black Hawk helicopters seized the mountainous high ground in  Kunar provinces, Marwara districts and launched a swoop pre-dawn on Sunday on unsuspecting 200 insurgents camped in the area.

Two US soldiers died in the assault described by American commanders as 'the most intense battles of the past year' in which 150 Taliban fighters were killed including elements of Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban fighters, Washington Post reported.

A large number of Pakistani Taliban and other militants were sheltering in the area to escape the Pakistan army operation in the neighbouring South Waziristan district, US military officers said.

"Once the battle began, other elements from the area tried to enter the fight," Col Andrew P Poppas, who commands the US forces in the area, told the Washington Post.

Before the battle, US forces estimated that as many as 250 insurgents had infiltrated the remote district and there had been sharp increase in deadly roadside bombings, mortar and rocket attacks.

US commander said that in contrast to the lead-up to the major battle in Marjah this year, US and Afghan troops did not give any advance warnings of the offensive in the remote region close to Pakistan border, which had been the site of several deadly ambushes on US forces in the past two years.

Washington Post, quoting senior US military officers, said the Afghan army, police and border force made up about 60 per cent of the attacking force and played a central role in planning the assault.

The US forces said that the area's sub-governor had been a former Mujahideen commander decades earlier in the same mountains and knew the area so well.

US officials said the heaviest fighting in the area ended by the Monday morning and now US and Afghan forces were re-establishing the Afghan police and local government in the district's main village.

The assault represents one of the largest in eastern Afghanistan in the past several years and reflects growing concerns among the US commanders and Afghan leaders that Taliban insurgents are seeking to intensify pressure in the east as troops prepare for a tough summer of fighting in the south, US officials said.