US Coalition Reports Deadly Raid on Suspected Militants
By VOA News
22 March 2009
The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says it has killed five suspected militants and detained four others in a raid close to the border with Tajikistan.
The coalition says Afghan forces helped carry out the raid in the northern province of Kunduz Sunday.
Some local Afghan officials are contesting the report, saying the people killed were civilians working for the district mayor.
The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Separately, officials say a bomb hit a vehicle in the eastern province of Khost Sunday, killing one person and wounding 11 others.
Civilian deaths caused by coalition activities have been one of the biggest sources of tensions between Afghans and foreign forces in the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded international forces take greater care to avoid civilians in their fight against Taliban an al-Qaida militants.
On Saturday, the U.S. envoy to the region confirmed reports that the United States plans to help Afghanistan significantly expand its police force.
Richard Holbrooke told a security conference in Brussels Saturday that Afghanistan's current police force is "the weak link in the security chain."
He also said the U.S. administration will focus more on agriculture reform to create jobs and alternatives for Afghan farmers who grow opium poppies.
The crop supplies over 90 percent of the world's heroin and helps fund the Taliban insurgency.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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