20 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers killed

At least 20 insurgents and nine Afghan soldiers were killed after militants ambushed US and Afghan forces in the southern province of Kandahar, the US military said Thursday. Four Afghan soldiers and one US soldier were also wounded in the firefight on Wednesday evening, US-led coalition spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore told AFP. "An initial report indicates that more than 20 insurgents have been killed in Kandahar after the ambush," said the spokeswoman.
A defence ministry spokesman had earlier confirmed the deaths of the nine soldiers but had no information on the numbers of attackers killed.
The soldiers were on a mission in Shawali Kot, a troubled district in Kandahar, when they were attacked, spokesman Mohammad Nohman Atifi told AFP.
He blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taleban and other Islamic militants waging a rebellion against US and Afghan forces.
Around 60 militants, most of them believed to be from the Taleban, have been killed in the past three days, according to US and Afghan officials. There was no way of independently confirming the figure.
On Tuesday around 40 suspected Taleban militants were killed in a fierce firefight with Afghan and US troops, according to the US military.
A spring offensive by the Taleban in southern and south-eastern Afghanistan has left at least 100 militants and 12 policemen dead in the last month, officials said earlier Thursday.