KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces called in air strikes against the Taliban, killing a dozen militants during fighting in southern Afghanistan that has displaced many families, officials said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, an old mortar round exploded in the north of the country, wounding 17 children.
The coalition said in a statement that its troops opened fire and called in air strikes Monday after observing militants trying to set up an ambush. The coalition had been targeting a Taliban commander transporting weapons.
The troops also discovered weapons and ammunition in a search of compounds in the area, it said.
Fighting has intensified in the southern province of Helmand since U.S. marines pushed into the town of Garmser late last month aiming to cut Taliban supply lines in the heart of the insurgency.
Many families have temporarily left their homes because of the fighting, said Aleem Siddique, a UN spokesman in Kabul. He could not provide an estimate of the numbers displaced.
"The UN agencies have offered assistance to local authorities and are ready to help as soon as the government is able to clarify its requirements,'' Siddique said.
Helmand Gov. Ghulab Mangal denied there had been a major exodus, but said authorities would compensate all families whose homes were damaged or destroyed during the fighting.
Mangal said about 150 militants, including foreign fighters from Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Chechnya, have been killed since the operation began. He said there are still about 500 insurgents in and around Garmser.
A U.S. military spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment on the governor's claim.
In the northern town of Baghlan on Tuesday, a boy dropped an old mortar shell that he was trying to exchange for ice cream with a scrap metal dealer, said police officer Habib Rehman.
The shell exploded, wounding 17 children and a man. Fourteen of the children were evacuated to a hospital in Baghlan. Three others were sent to the nearby town of Pul-e-Khumri, said Dr. Narmgui from the Baghlan hospital. Like many Afghans, Narmgui goes by one name.
Afghanistan is littered with old ordnance left over from decades of war.
On Monday, a rocket hit a house in the eastern Kunar province, wounding two children and a man, said provincial deputy police chief Abdul Sabor Allayer. He blamed insurgents for the attack.
At least 1,200 people -- mostly militants -- have died in insurgency-related violence in 2008, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press of figures from Western and Afghan officials. The UN says more than 8,000 people, most of them militants, died in insurgency-related violence in 2007.
