KABUL, Afghanistan - Two battles killed more than 165 Taliban fighters and one U.S.-led coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan as President Hamid Karzai prepared to discuss his country's escalating violence at the White House.
An ongoing clash began early Tuesday when several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, with Taliban reinforcements flowing in all day, a coalition statement said.
The coalition returned artillery fire and called in fighter aircraft, killing more than 100 of the Taliban fighters, the coalition said. One coalition soldier was killed and four wounded.
The coalition said there were no immediate reports of civilian deaths or injuries.
Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since.
Situated in northern Helmand province, Musa Qala and the region around it have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. It is also in the middle of the country's poppy-growing belt.
In neighbouring Uruzgan province, more than 80 Taliban fighters attacked a joint Afghan and coalition patrol from multiple bunkers near the village of Kakrak during a six-hour battle Tuesday night, the coalition said.
The ground force commander requested coalition artillery and air support, which bombarded "Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents,'' it said.
Three civilians were wounded in the crossfire and evacuated to a military medical facility nearby, it said. No Afghan or coalition forces were hurt.
The battle took place near an area where more than three dozen insurgents were killed as they prepared an ambush six days ago, the coalition said.
The huge clashes come as Karzai prepares to meet with President George W. Bush on Wednesday in the United States. Bush is seeking assurances that Karzai is dealing with Afghanistan's soaring drug trade and security problems.
Afghan opium poppy cultivation hit a record high this year, fuelled by Taliban militants and corrupt government officials, a UN report found last month. The country produces nearly all the world's opium, and Taliban insurgents are profiting.
More than 4,400 people -- mostly militants -- have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and western officials.
