35 rebels killed in combat; Afghan police get shake-up

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Backed by warplanes, U.S. and Afghan troops recaptured a town from suspected Taliban rebels in heavy fighting as violence across southern Afghanistan left at least 35 militants dead, officials said Saturday.

The Afghan government, meanwhile, announced a shake-up of the country's top police commanders Saturday after the worst anti-foreigner riots in years shook the capital. Kabul's police chief will be replaced, along with 85 others across the country.

U.S. and Afghan troops retook the southern town of Chori on Friday, killing up to 20 militants, said Gen. Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

Hundreds of insurgents had attacked the town in Uruzgan province Wednesday, moving in when local security forces were forced to flee. While rebels have been increasing attacks in recent weeks, it is unusual for them to successfully control a large chunk of territory for days.

A surge in fighting since mid-May has killed more than 400 people, most of them militants.

Violence has also wracked Kabul, with rioters last Monday attacking foreigners after a deadly road accident involving a U.S. military truck.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Interior declined to say whether the police shake-up announced Saturday was linked to the rioting, in which up to 20 people were killed.

Both Afghan investigators and the U.S. military are investigating the cause of the anti-foreigner unrest.

Insurgents are trying to take advantage of the anti-foreigner sentiment. On Saturday, the Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera quoted Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a renegade former Afghan premier wanted by the United States, as threatening new violence against U.S. troops.

"Resistance is not weak. All the Afghan people insist on taking revenge and wish, if you stay for a longer period, to cause you more causalities," Hekmatyar said on an audiotape, according to Al-Jazeera.

It was not immediately possible to verify the comments.

In other violence reported Saturday:

-- Militants attacked a police station Friday in Miana Shien town, Kandahar province, sparking clashes that killed 12 militants and wounded 17 people, said Dawood Hamadi, the provincial spokesman.

-- In neighboring Helmand province, coalition warplanes bombed militants loading munitions from a cave onto a truck Friday, the U.S. military said, adding that it did not know the number of militant deaths.

-- Also in Helmand, U.S. troops killed three militants in a gunbattle Friday, said Maj. Quentin Innis, coalition spokesman.

-- In northern Baghlan province, gunmen fatally shot an Afghan aid worker Friday, said Mohammad Qasim Amirzai, a deputy local police chief.

Afghanistan's fledgling parliament voted Saturday to adopt a $2 billion budget for the next fiscal year after the government agreed to boost the pay of state workers.

Lawmakers had complained that the country's 400,000 civil servants were being paid too little -- about $40 a month in a Kabul, where even basic rent costs around $100 a month.

Salaries will be increased about $6 a month, a parliamentary spokesman said.

About a third of the budget comes from international donors, primarily the United States, Japan and Britain. Hundreds of millions of dollars in other aid is pumped directly into projects around Afghanistan.