KABUL, Afghanistan - Two American soldiers were wounded in a clash with militants near
Afghanistan's rugged border with Pakistan that drew air strikes from U.S. warplanes, the military said Saturday.
The skirmish occurred Thursday near Shkin, a border town in Paktika province 140 miles south of the capital, Kabul. The military acknowledged the clash and the air strikes late Friday but gave few details.
Spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager told reporters Saturday that two U.S. soldiers were wounded in but gave no details of their condition or their identities. It was unclear if any enemy forces were killed.
"It's in some very rough terrain," Mansager said. "The check into the battle damage assessment is still going on."
Shkin lies just a few miles from the border with Pakistan and its semi-autonomous Waziristan tribal region, where Pakistani officials say hundreds of foreign militants are holed up.
The border area is also viewed as a possible hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Under pressure from the United States, the Pakistani government is threatening military action against the foreigners - believed to include Arabs and Chechens as well as Afghans - if they don't renounce violence and register with authorities.
Pakistan has complained about two incursions by U.S. forces onto its territory this month, and U.S. officials have promised to take greater precautions to prevent them.
However, Pakistani news media reported that U.S. warplanes and helicopters violated Pakistan's air space across from Paktika province Thursday night. It was not immediately clear whether the alleged violation came from the same clash reported by the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the military played down the scale of a battle Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, where U.S. warplanes again came to the assistance of American troops engaged in a firefight.
Afghan officials initially said as many as 20 suspected Taliban were killed in fighting in the Arghistan district of Kandahar province. But Mansager said the U.S. military knew of only two dead militants.
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