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BBCUS helicopter 'downed by Taleban'
A US military helicopter has made an emergency landing in Afghanistan amid reports that militants shot it down.
No one was seriously injured in the "hard landing" in the north-eastern province of Nuristan on Monday night, coalition forces said.
The Taleban say they shot the helicopter down.
Separately, the coalition says troops killed 12 Taleban fighters in southern Helmand province, an opium production centre and insurgent stronghold.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7397868.stm
150 rebels killed in Afghan operation: governorKANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - International and Afghan troops forged ahead with an offensive against the Taliban near the Pakistan border on Tuesday, with a governor insisting 150 rebels had been killed in the past week.
US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched a significant new operation two weeks ago in Garmser district in southern Helmand province, a key battleground for a Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing centre.
Soldiers in a separate US-led coalition have also reported several engagements in the area in the past week. They said Tuesday they had killed a dozen rebels in Garmser on Monday.
The international forces helping Afghanistan fight an insurgency led by the Al-Qaeda-backed Taliban normally do not issue death tolls from their engagements, saying they want to avoid a "body count."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080513/wl_afp/afghanistanunrest_080513143555;_ylt=AnMVBlXqGUxCtZrgCVrfWs.QOrgFAfghanistan says thousands flee fearing NATO strikesKABUL (AFP) — Up to 6,000 people have fled their homes in a southern Afghanistan district fearing NATO strikes amid a large-scale operation against Taliban militants, an official said Monday.
The mass exodus from Garmser, a remote district in troubled Helmand province, comes as NATO-led troops hunt Taliban militants and their allies in an operation that kicked off two weeks ago.
"Around 900 families, counting for about 5,000 to 6,000 people, have left the area," refugees ministry spokesman Shamsuddin Sarhadi told AFP.
The displaced families were being put up in a government-run camp in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand which is 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the district centre Garmser, he said.
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ggkTjBJ46N7-JGmQ7x1GAyYxMhmA