Six Taleban guerrillas were killed in an air strike by US-led troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday after blasts elsewhere in the country killed three policemen and wounded two British troops.
The air strike was carried out in Kunar province as part of Operation Lion launched on Wednesday to flush out militants from the area, officials said.
Three policemen were killed on Friday when a remote-control bomb hit their truck on a main road outside the south-eastern town of Khost, said provincial police chief Mohammad Ayoub. Three policemen were wounded, he said.
Earlier, two British soldiers from a Nato-led peacekeeping force were among three people wounded in suicide car-bomb attack in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand.
None of the wounds were life threatening, a British spokeswoman said.
The attacker died as he rammed his car into a vehicle near the entrance of a base used by foreign troops, said senior provincial official Mahaiuddin, who uses one name. The Taleban telephoned Reuters to claim responsibility.
Elsewhere on Friday, foreign and Afghan forces, backed by air support, launched an offensive against Taleban fighters hiding in Maiwand district of Kandahar province, said Rahmatullah Raufi, a senior Afghan National Army commander.
Jet fighters pounded the area, and fierce fighting was underway. Fleeing villagers said they saw plumes of black smoke rising and the main highway linking Kandahar to western provinces was also cut.
At least one Afghan soldier was killed in the fighting, a provincial official said.
In central Uruzgan province, US-led troops and Afghan soldiers killed two insurgents and captured two, who the US military said had been recruiting suicide bombers.
Comments
Comments are closed.