Paratroopers of the US Army's 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment (Airborne), based at Fort Richardson, Alaska, receive their Combat Infantry Badges at the award ceremony in Zerok in East Paktika province in Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009.
A battle in western Afghanistan that included airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban militants after an insurgent ambush left three US troops dead, an Afghan official said Sunday.
The hours-long battle took place Saturday in the western province of Farah after a complex attack that killed three Americans and seven Afghan troops, said Afghan army spokesman Maj. Abdul Basir Ghori.
The insurgent ambush involved two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a US military spokeswoman, said Sunday. Mathias confirmed that fighting in the west continued after the ambush, but she could not provide any casualty figures.
Ghori said about 50 militants were killed in Saturday's battle, but no other Afghan officials could immediately confirm that figure.
During the clash, a coalition airstrike hit a home and killed a woman and a teenage girl, said Afghan police spokesman Raouf Ahmadi.
The fighting took place in the Bala Baluk district of Farah province, a region controlled by militants that has been the site of huge battles in the past, some that have caused high numbers of civilian casualties.
