Taliban rebels killed in bombing

US soldiers backed up by F-16s and Apache attack helicopters killed at least two suspected Taliban rebels and captured three others in eastern Afghanistan, the military said today.

The soldiers came under attack from 11 to 15 suspected Taliban near a coalition base at Shkin, 150 miles south of the capital, Kabul, along the border with Pakistan.

Lt Col Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman at Bagram Air Base, said: “We engaged them in direct fire, then called in the F-16s.”

He said the warplanes dropped 500-pound bombs, and that AH-64 Apache helicopters were also called in. The battle lasted about an hour, he said and there were no coalition casualties.

Taliban rebels have stepped up their insurgency in recent months, launching ever-more-frequent attacks in the south and east of the country. US and Afghan officials say the rebels slip back across the porous border into Pakistan’s tribal belt to evade arrest.

The attack came as some 500 delegates were assembled in the capital for an historic constitutional council, or loya jirga. Early today, three rockets hit the capital, but they caused no casualties and struck far from the council site.