KHOST, Afghanistan, July 22, (AFP): More than 50 militants were killed in a major Afghan and foreign operation against the Haqqani network in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Friday.
The 48-hour air and ground operation was conducted in the rugged terrain of Paktika province, known to be a hub of activity for the Taleban-linked Haqqani network, on the frontier with Pakistan.
The Haqqani network is thought to have safe havens in Pakistan’s lawless border tribal areas.
“In Sar Rowzah district, Paktika province, security forces including Afghan special forces killed more than 50 insurgents during a security clearance of a known Haqqani network foreign fighter encampment site”, ISAF said Friday.
It said in a statement that the Haqqani network used the camp as a staging area for fighters brought over the border to carry out attacks across the war-torn country.
Combined international and Afghan forces pushed the insurgents out of the area but were intermittently engaged by them throughout the day, it added.
Officials in Paktika province were unreachable for comment, but the head of the neighbouring Urgun district confirmed heavy fighting between insurgents and combined Afghan and foreign forces in the area.

An AFP reporter in neighbouring Khost province meanwhile witnessed more than 30 missiles fired from the US-run Salerno military base on Thursday night, saying it was more than ever before.
Both NATO forces and insurgents including the Haqqani group have intensified their activities in the war-ravaged country to consolidate their positions as the official transfer of responsibilities to Afghan forces begins.
On Thursday the city of Herat in western Afghanistan became the fifth of seven areas of the country to transition to local security control this week.
The switch comes with US and Afghan officials trying to reach out to the Taleban to negotiate a peace deal as NATO-led troops begin a gradual withdrawal designed to recall all foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
Five civilians were killed on Friday when their vehicle hit a mine in northern Afghanistan, where a Taleban insurgency has increasingly encroached in recent years, police said.
The device exploded Faryab province’s Qaysar district, police spokesman Sayed Massoud Yaqoubi told AFP.

“Five civilians were killed as their vehicle was hit by a roadside mine in the Shakh area of Qaysar district,” Yaqoubi said.
The spokesman accused the Taleban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency against Afghan government and US-led NATO troops, of planting the bomb.
The militant group was not immediately reachable for comment.
The attack comes two days after a suicide bomber killed four people in Afghanistan’s northern capital, Mazar-i-Sharif, where NATO troops are due to hand over security responsibility to Afghan forces on Saturday.
The town will become the fifth area of the country to transition to local security control this week as part of a process that critics have branded too much too soon, with question marks looming over Afghan security capabilities.
Civilians are the biggest casualties in the near 10-year war in Afghanistan, where 150,000 foreign forces are stationed.
The United Nations has said that more than 1,400 civilians have been killed in the first six months of 2011, blaming insurgents for 80 percent of civilian deaths.