KABUL, June 29, (Agencies): A force of about 700 US and Afghan troops has killed up to 150 Taleban insurgents in a major offensive along eastern Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The US-led operation, which began Sunday, was one of the largest yet in the region around Kunar province, said the newspaper, which cited US officials as calling it “one of the most intense battles of the past year” in Afghanistan. In a statement Sunday, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said more than 600 ISAF and Afghan troops were pursuing Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants in Kunar and that “a number of insurgents” had been killed. Two US troops had been killed in the battle, according to ISAF, which had no immediate update to offer on Tuesday.

The Washington Post said the offensive was designed to flush out growing numbers of Taleban militants bidding to open up a second front in Kunar, as the US-led ISAF battles to root out insurgents in southern Afghanistan. “The Taleban know we are bringing our surge of forces, and they realise they can’t just let that happen, so they are pursuing their own surge,” Major General John Campbell, the senior commander in eastern Afghanistan, told the newspaper.

In addition to Afghan Taleban trying to spread the war from the south, loosely affiliated fighters with the Pakistani Taleban had gone into Kunar to escape a military offensive across the border, the report said. Gen David Petraeus cautiously endorsed President Barack Obama’s exit plan for the Afghan war on Tuesday, leaving himself room to recommend changes or delays as he interviewed for the job of commander of the stalemated war. Petraeus, the emergency replacement following the sacking of the previous commander, told a Senate panel that Obama wants him to provide unvarnished military advice. Petraeus has previously said that he would recommend putting off any large-scale withdrawal if security conditions in Afghanistan can’t sustain it.

Obama has announced that some US forces will begin coming home next summer. Petraeus reminded the Senate Armed Services Committee that the president has said the plan to bring some forces home in July 2011 is not a rush for the exits. In his opening remarks, Petraeus did not explicitly endorse the withdrawal plan, although he has done so before. He said the US commitment to Afghanistan is “enduring,” and that it will be years before the Afghan security forces can fully take over. A UN vehicle was shot up at a busy traffic circle in Afghanistan’s capital Tuesday, and at least one person was wounded, witnesses said.

In southeastern Kabul, a protest against Nato forces in Afghanistan turned violent as demonstrators clashed with police. At least 15 police officers and five civilians were wounded, according to Mohammad Khalil Dastyar, deputy police chief in the capital. About 300 protesters blocked streets in the neighborhood of Qalacha. Some threw rocks through windows. A small group hoisted a banner that said: “We don’t want American occupiers.” An AP reporter at the scene heard gunshots, but it was unclear who was shooting. A police official said some of the protesters were shooting Kalashnikov rifles. Two police vehicles were damaged. Police were seen arresting six suspects.

The protest was prompted by a raid that Afghan police and intelligence officials conducted Monday night at a madrassa, or religious school, in which three people were arrested, Dastyar said. One demonstrator said they were angry because foreign troops with the Afghan forces had had torn up copies of the Quran and let a dog — considered unclean in Islam — rummage through a mosque.