85 killed as US air strikes target Taliban strongholds

Published on 22/05/2006 11:28

ABOUT 50 insurgents and 35 civilians have been killed in an attack on a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan.

The attack took place late yesterday and early today on the village of Azizi in Panjwayi district, Kandahar province, according to coalition spokesman, Major Scott Lundy.

"It was against a known Taliban stronghold and we believe it resulted in about 50 Taliban killed," he said.

Maj Lundy said the coalition was investigating whether some civilians may also have been hit.

More than a dozen villagers, many of them wounded, fled from the area to the main southern city of Kandahar early today, claiming scores of civilians had been killed.

Haji Ikhlaf, 40, said: "Helicopters bombed the madrassa [Islamic religious school] and some of the Taliban ran from there and into people's homes. Then those homes were bombed."