US and Afghan forces attacked a clinic in eastern Afghanistan where a Taliban leader was being treated for injuries he sustained last week, Nato has said.
They were fired upon when they neared the clinic in the Sar Hawza district of Paktika province, and responded by ordering helicopter strikes.
The troops first made sure there were no civilians inside, Nato added.
Nato said one soldier was killed and seven gunmen were arrested, but local officials said 12 militants had died.
Hamidullah Zhwak, a spokesman for Paktika's governor, said the Taliban commander had been wounded in clashes last Thursday, when Afghans voted in presidential and provincial elections.
He and three other wounded Taliban had been brought to the clinic at noon on Wednesday, shortly after which the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) was tipped off, he said.
Mr Zhwak said militants in a tower near the clinic had opened fired as the troops approached and that the gun battle had lasted five hours.
"After ensuring the clinic was cleared of civilians, an AH64 Apache helicopter fired rounds at the building, ending the direct threat and injuring the targeted insurgent in the building," Nato said on Thursday, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
A blast in Kandahar on Wednesday night which set a wood shop on fire caused no casualties, the AP news agency reported.
How many years do people have to march for peace? Two years of Kurdish marches. Two years of so many.
Iraqi Kurds march for peace as raids by Turkey loom · Direct talks urged to avert army strike on PKK rebels · Turkish leaders defiant amid foreign criticism
Michael Howard in Dohuk .. * The Guardian, 19 October 2007
Thousands of protesters, including many school students, took to the streets of Iraqi Kurdistan yesterday to denounce Turkey's decision to allow its generals to cross into northern Iraq to hunt down fighters of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), which it accuses of carrying out attacks in Turkey from bases in Iraq. [...]
"We are not supporting the PKK. They have a fight with Turkey and it is not our fight," said Shwan Abdullah, 15. "If the army comes in, they may never leave." [...]
Turkey's leaders, however, remained defiant yesterday. "Turkey is implementing the same international rules that were implemented by those who linked the attacks on the twin towers to some organisations" and sent troops to Afghanistan and Iraq on that basis, said the justice minister, Mehmet ali Sahin, in a swipe at the Bush administration. "That's why no one has the right to say anything." [...]
Ankara, however, refuses to recognise the Kurds' regional government, saying it will talk only to Baghdad, whose power to effect changes in Kurdistan without the Kurds' say-so is negligible. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/19/turkey.iraq
Thousands of Kurds march for peace in Turkey .. 25 September, 2009
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 25, 2009 (AFP) — Thousands of Kurds rallied here Friday calling for an end to deadly fighting between the army and Kurdish rebels amid government efforts to end a 25-year insurgency.
Some 10,000 people -- relatives of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels killed in clashes -- marched through Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, shouting "Martyrs never die."
"Hear the cries of these mothers. We are saying that no policeman, soldier or guerrilla should die. Let's live in peace," Hasan Pence, the chairman of a relative's support group, said.
Some 45,000 people -- most of them Kurdish rebels -- have been killed since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, picked up arms for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and southeast.
"These people have fought for their language, culture and identity, and paid a price. If we are talking about peace today, it is because of them," Pervin Buldan, a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, said.
For the past few months, the Ankara government has been working on a series of measures aimed at improving the rights of the Kurdish community and eroding support for the PKK.
Details of the package have not been released, but the government has already ruled out dialogue with the PKK or a general amnesty for the rebels, a key Kurdish demand.
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