KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. special operations soldiers killed nine suspected Taliban rebels in a firefight in eastern Afghanistan after the militants tried to sneak by their position, a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday.
The clash occurred Friday east of Orgun, about 105 miles south of Kabul and not far from the border with Pakistan, said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a military spokesman. There were no U.S. casualties.
Hilferty said the shooting began as a "platoon-sized" unit of suspected Taliban - about 30-40 men - tried to flank 10 American soldiers manning a sniper position.
"I don't know who opened fire first," Hilferty said.
After the clash, the remaining rebels ran off, he said.
On Feb. 27, U.S. troops shot dead a gunman near the American base at Orgun, which lies in a turbulent swath of rugged country where the military has vowed a spring offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban suspects.
Orgun is in Afghanistan's Paktika province, just across the border from Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region. Pakistani authorities recently launched a military operation in the semiautonomous tribal belt in an effort to capture al-Qaida suspects or force them to flee.
There has been no word of any major arrests.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, are both believed to be hiding out in the long border region, though there has been no specific word on their whereabouts for some time.
On Thursday, American solders detained 14 suspected Taliban north of Khost, another Afghan town near the Pakistan border.
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