NATO Reports Dozens Of Taliban Killed In Afghan Battle

Afghan police next to a damaged NATO vehicle near the site of a December 3 suicide attack in Kandahar (epa) December 4, 2006 -- NATO says its troops have killed between 70 and 80 Taliban fighters in a four-hour battle in southern Afghanistan.

The alliance's warplanes were called in to support ground troops during fighting in Helmand Province's Musa Qala district on December 3.

There were no reports of NATO casualties in the fighting, which began when a Danish patrol working with British troops came under fire outside Musa Qala.

The attack is said to have occurred just outside an area that local elders pledged to police in a recent deal with British forces.

Earlier the same day, a suicide car bomb killed at least two civilians and wounded three NATO soldiers in the southern city of Kandahar.

(Reuters, AFP)