Afghan villagers return after 75 suspected insurgents killed

SANGIN VALLEY, Afghanistan -- Villagers trickled back to their damaged farms, descending from the hills with their belongings in bundles or on donkeys Tuesday after a NATO operation in their valley killed some 75 suspected Taliban fighters.

The latest salvo in the alliance's campaign to win control of southern Afghanistan chalked up a clear military victory. But the outcome of the tougher battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans remained unclear.

The suspected militants were killed Monday when heavily armed British, Danish and Afghan soldiers fought their way up the Sangin Valley in Helmand province -- Afghanistan's most volatile, and the source of most of the world's opium and heroin.

Maj. Dominic Biddick, who led a company of British troops in the operation, said that some of those killed Monday were local men whose deaths could turn their relatives against the NATO troops. Afghan troops were meeting with residents about how to bury the remains.

Biddick said NATO troops also captured several militants and discovered an arms cache during "a full day of fighting" among the valley's walled compounds and opium poppy fields.