Thursday November 8 7:14 AM ET

Pakistan Group Says U.S. Raids Kill 85 Fighters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. bombing in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed 85 fighters of a Pakistan-based militant group allied with the ruling Taliban, a spokesman for the militant Harkat Jihad-i-Islami group said.

Many Harkat fighters were also wounded in the bombing on the Dara-i-Suf area of Samangan province south of the key northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, spokesman Kamal Azfar told Reuters.

No independent confirmation was available for the report, which would mark the deadliest known attack on foreign fighters in Afghanistan since a U.S. raid killed about 35 members of another Pakistani militant group in Kabul last month.

Azfar said his group had a presence in the area to help the Taliban movement fight the opposition Northern Alliance. But he declined to give the number of Harkat fighters in the area.

The Northern Alliance, helped by the 33-day-old U.S. air strikes against the Taliban, has reported advances in the area with the aim of capturing Mazar-i-Sharif, the Balkh provincial capital that could provide it a vital supply route.

Pakistan supports military strikes on Afghanistan to flush out Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his followers who are suspected by Washington of masterminding the devastating September 11 hijack plane attack on the United States.

Several Pakistani Islamic and militant groups back the Taliban.

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001