Residents look at bodies of suspected Taliban fighters dumped into the Pakistani border town of Chaman

Additional reporting by Husbanullah Mutawakel, IOL Correspondent

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 49 people, including 40 Taliban fighters, were killed late Wednesday, June 4, in southern Afghanistan in what is believed to be one of the deadliest clashes with government troops since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

Forty Taliban and nine government troops were killed in the attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Kandahar police chief General Mohammad Akram as saying.

But the BBC News Online said that 40 Taliban fighters and six government soldiers died in the fierce battle.

"In total, 40 Taliban were killed, nearly all of the enemy was wiped out," Sayed Fazzeludin Agha, head of the nearby Spin Boldak district, told AFP by telephone.

"The Taliban were very well equipped," he admitted.

Agha claimed Taliban fighters, led by Mullah Afez Abdul Rahim, had infiltrated into the country from Pakistan.

He said Rahim escaped but his second-in-command was killed in the clashes.

The local forces numbering 50 called for reinforcements and 100 additional soldiers were sent - but no international troops, Agha told the BBC.

Afghan authorities said they have dumped the bodies of 22 of the suspected Taliban fighters at Killi Faizu refugee camp just inside Pakistani territory.

"Afghan officials brought the dead bodies in three pick-ups at 7:30 am (0230 GMT) and went back after throwing them in an open place," Afghan border police officer Fazal Bari told AFP.

Pakistani frontier guards have lodged a protest and were negotiating with their Afghan counterparts to persuade them to take back the bodies, according to Pakistani officials in Quetta, 100 kilometers (63 miles) from the border.

"Pakistan has nothing to do with the affairs across the border," a frontier official stressed.

There were no reports of further clashes Thursday, June 5, and no U.S. troops were involved in the fighting.

Clashes erupted Tuesday when around 100 suspected Taliban fighters armed with rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers attacked pro-government militiamen near Taliban's former stronghold of Kandahar, AFP said.

Afghan officials said the heavily-armed fighters crossed over from neighboring Pakistan into Kandahar's south east border region of Loikarez.

The mountainous frontier is believed to be the hideout of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters and former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar -- blamed for several attacks on Afghan and U.S.-led troops.

Taliban claimed responsibility for downing an American AH-64 Apache helicopter in the southern province of Bakhita on Tuesday, June 3, killing two American military personnel, reported the Afghani Sohar newspaper Thursday.

The U.S. military said the helicopter crashed while supporting combat operations in southeast Afghanistan but said there were no casualties.

Taliban also claimed Tuesday responsibility for killing four U.S. soldiers and injuring two others in a missile attack on a U.S. outpost in the Afghan state of Konar.

Meanwhile, unknown attackers fired a rocket at deminers working on the main Kabul-Kandahar road in the latest of a string of attacks which have left at least one worker dead and eight injured, AFP quoted a United Nations spokesman as saying Thursday.

"There was a rocket attack (Monday) on a deminers' camp along the Kabul-Kandahar road," Manoel de Almeida e Silva told reporters at a press conference.

The rocket went over the Afghan Technical Consultants' camp in Sheykhabad village, Wardak province 60 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Kabul.

"There have been numerous attacks on demining teams working along the Kabul to Kandahar road, mostly in Ghazni but also in Wardak," the U.N. spokesman said.

"There are ongoing discussions with the authorities to see what can be done to improve security for the definers so the work can resume," he said.

Deminers last week suspended work along part of the road north of Ghazni 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Kabul following a fresh series of attacks and threats against their teams.

Mine clearing organizations a week earlier suspended operations in 10 provinces across southern Afghanistan following a series of attacks on deminers.

"It's not clear whether they are being targeted because they are deminers," the spokesman said, pointing out that with around 8,000 workers, deminers are the single largest group working on Afghanistan's reconstruction.

"Whatever the motivation is, the impact is tremendously negative."

Suspension of mine clearing affects farming and refugee returns as agricultural land makes up around 29 percent of the mine-contaminated area in Afghanistan.

Demining work is also crucial to reconstruction as road rebuilding cannot proceed until the areas are cleared.

"So you can well imagine the impact of this for development projects, for humanitarian assistance and for return of Afghans who want to go back to their places of origin," the spokesman said.

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