AFGHANISTAN - June 25 - Karzai Says Taliban Boss Lacks 'Guts'.

Coalition and Afghan forces kill about 45 militants, suffering two coalition casualties in the process, in southern Afghanistan. The two soldiers were wounded during a four-hour battle on June 24 and later died at a hospital, the US-led coalition said in a statement. One coalition soldier was also wounded. The coalition estimates about 250 insurgents have been killed since Operation Mountain Thrust - the biggest military operation since the push to topple the Taliban - got under way earlier this month to stop a wave of suicide attacks and ambushes in southern Afghanistan. Pres Hamid Karzai on June 25 called the Taliban's fugitive leader a coward, saying Mullah Omar should come out of hiding and face justice. Karzai's comments come amid claims, allegedly made by Omar in an audio tape aired on June 25 by a Pakistani TV station, that the US-led coalition and the Afghan government lack the wisdom to solve Afghanistan's escalating violence. Karzai did not comment on the tape's authenticity, but he told CNN's "Late Edition" if Omar is "really in charge" he should come out of hiding and "face the danger he is causing to hundreds of young people in Afghanistan and Pakistan". "It needs guts to do what he's talking about, and he doesn't have it", he said. In a meeting earlier in the day, Karzai emphasised to key Western officials the need for international troops to work more closely with tribal leaders and community elders during military operations, his office said Sunday. He asked the international community to look at the deeper causes and dynamics of terrorist activities. The heads of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan and Western diplomats were at the meeting. Karzai again warned that maximum caution needs to be taken to avoid civilian casualties during military operations. The meeting follows Karzai's strong statements last week that the current approach of hunting down Taliban militants has failed to address the sources of terrorism - its funding, training and recruitment. Karzai has decried the violence in the south, which since May has left over 600 people dead, mostly militants. The deaths come a day after more than 80 militants were reported killed in multiple gunfights in southern Afghanistan. More than 10,000 British, Canadian, US and Afghan troops are deployed across Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces - areas where Taliban forces have regrouped and gained strength. Meanwhile, five Afghan aid workers, including three employed by a Swedish aid agency, were abducted in eastern Afghanistan, a police official said on June 25. The five - two doctors and an employee of the aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and two local government workers - were kidnapped on June 22 while driving in the province of Nuristan, said Ghalamullah Nuristani, the provincial deputy police chief. Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Public Health Ministry in Kabul, said the five were still alive, according to village elders in contact with the kidnappers, and police and Afghan troops were looking for them.