NATO says kills 150 insurgents in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO and Afghan troops killed up to 150 insurgents in a ground and air attack in southeastern Afghanistan after the insurgents infiltrated from neighboring Pakistan, the alliance said on Thursday.

Afghan anger over the infiltration of Taliban militants from Pakistan has soured relations between the neighbors, both important U.S. allies in the war on terrorism.

The latest fighting, which appeared to be the biggest clash in Afghanistan in months, occurred on Wednesday night in the mountainous Bermal district of Paktika province, NATO said.

NATO and Afghan forces observed two large groups of insurgents gathering on the Pakistani side of the border, said a spokesman.

"They spotted them, they tracked them, then, when they entered Afghanistan and were a threat to ISAF and Afghan forces nearby, they were engaged with air power and artillery," said Mark Laity, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

"The result was, in a running series of engagements, about 150 killed."

The casualty estimate was based on initial battle damage reports, NATO said. The Pakistani military had been kept fully informed during the operation, NATO said.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said it estimated 80 insurgents had been killed. Eleven bodies had been recovered.

The Taliban rejected the NATO report as "baseless and false" and said no fighters had been killed.

"Only civilians were targeted," a Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, said by telephone.

If confirmed, the death toll would be the highest since September when NATO troops forced the Taliban out of a district near the southern city of Kandahar in a two-week offensive that NATO said killed at least 500 insurgents.

Last year was the bloodiest since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001. More than 4,000 people, including nearly 170 foreign troops, were killed.