Meanwhile,
a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai denied a report by the
Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that the government was
negotiating with Taliban officials in Zabul.
"I
completely deny that," presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said
when asked about the report that officials were in talks with the
Taliban.
"There
is absolutely no negotiations going on with anyone," he told
reporters.
Zabul
officials also denied any talks were taking place. Zabul governor
Hafizullah Hashim also denied there were any negotiations and said the
militants were surrounded.
"The
Taliban are totally surrounded in Daychopan and we will capture the
whole area in one or two days," Hashim told AFP by satellite
phone.
Pakistan-based
Afghan Islamic Press earlier Monday claimed that President Hamid
Karzai's government had started negotiations with Taliban officials in
several parts of the troubled southeastern province of Zabul.
He
said there were no new casualties on Monday.
At
least 13 suspected Taliban were killed in Zabul fighting at the
weekend, according to Hashim's spokesman Noor Rahman who said 85
people had been killed during a week of clashes.
"Totally,
in more than a week of fighting between government forces and Taliban
fighters up to 80 Taliban have been killed, five government soldiers
were martyred and three were injured," Rahman told AFP Sunday
from the Zabul capital Qalat, 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of
Daychopan.
It
was not possible to independently verify the death toll in the remote
and mountainous area.
Davis
said Monday at least 37 militants had been killed, mostly in assaults
by coalition aircraft.
Four
militants and two U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded Sunday
in a separate clash close to the Pakistan border in neighboring
Paktika province, 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Kabul.
"Two
of the soldiers died of wounds received during the initial contact
with enemy fighters northwest of Shkin, in Paktika province this
morning," the U.S. military said in a statement late Sunday.
The
third was in a stable condition.
Davis
said another four patrols were attacked over the weekend in the border
provinces of Paktika, neighboring Paktia and northeast Kunar but there
were no other casualties.
"There
are times that we find ambushes fairly well organised, there are other
times we find that ambushes are not well organized," he said.
With
the latest deaths, Davis said 33 coalition soldiers have been killed
by hostile fire in Afghanistan since the October 2001 launch of
operations to oust the Taliban regime. Another 167 have been wounded.
