From Voice of America: NATO says Afghan and coalition forces have killed more than 50 insurgents during a military operation in eastern Afghanistan.

The coalition said Friday the fighting occurred in Paktika province’s Sar Rawza district during the clearance of a Haqqani network encampment. The network is affiliated with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

NATO said the site was an area where insurgents moved foreign fighters into the country to help carry out attacks across Afghanistan.

Paktika province borders Pakistan’s northwest. Both al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants are active in the region, on both sides of the border.

The coalition says the Haqqani network has been involved in several high profile attacks, including last month’s assault on the Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul.

NATO says disenfranchised insurgents had notified them of the camp’s location. Officials said no civilians were harmed in the raid.

From AP: International and Afghan troops battled heavily armed insurgents holed up in caves and bunkers that served as a way station for foreign fighters crossing into the country from Pakistan, the U.S.-led coalition said Friday. The two days of fighting killed more than 50 of the militants, it said.

The foreign fighter encampment is located in a rugged, mountainous part eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province. Insurgents from the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, used the camp as a staging area for fighters brought over the border to carry out attacks across the country, the coalition said.

International forces and Afghan troops, including Afghan special forces, battled insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles.

The joint force recovered stockpiles of weapons, including mortars, RPGs, machine guns, crates of ammunition, AK-47s, grenades and other military gear, the coalition said.

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