AFGHANISTAN - Mar 23 - Afghan Forces Kill 69 Militants Without Nato Help.

Afghan forces launch what appeared to be their biggest independent operation ever against the Taliban, killing as many as 69 militants in fighting in the south that also left 7 policemen dead. Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of trucks heading to a NATO base, killing 13 Afghans, an official said. The Afghan Army and police carried out a joint operation in the Gereshk district of Helmand Province on Mar 22 morning, but NATO-led troops were not involved in the operations, said General Muhammad Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman. Azimi said that 49 Taliban bodies had been found, up from a death toll he gave on Mar 22 of 28. Azimi estimated the overall militant death toll at 69. Seven police officers were killed. "They showed the capacity and capability of Afghanistan's National Army, without the help of foreign troops", Azimi said. Lt Col Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, confirmed that ISAF troops had not participated in the operation, which was part of a major push against a rising threat from the Taliban-inspired insurgency in the country's south. "There's more and more instances where we're stepping back further and further as we continue with the training of the army and police", Billings said. About 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan forces are in and around Helmand Province as part of Operation Achilles, launched earlier this month. Taliban militants and foreign fighters have streamed into Helmand Province in the last several months, the world's leading opium-producing region, according to US and NATO officials. US Marine unit ordered out Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under US investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country early. Major General Francis Kearney, head of Special Operations Command Central, responsible for special operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, ordered the unit of about 120 marines out of Afghanistan and initiated an investigation into the March 4 incident, said a spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters. In the March 4 incident in Nangahar Province, an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of marines that US officials said also came under fire from gunmen. As many as 10 Afghans were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made an escape. Wounded Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away. US military officials said militant gunmen shot at the marines and may have caused some of the civilian casualties.