One British soldier and three Afghan forces were killed in two separate blasts in volatile southern Afghanistan, while 26 Taliban militants were killed in clashes and Nato's airstrike elsewhere in the country, officials said Sunday.
In the latest series of home-made bomb attacks carried out by the Taliban, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in Sangin district of southern province of Helmand on Saturday, British Defence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Saturday's death brought to 230 the total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since their deployment in late 2001. Five British soldiers were killed on Wednesday when one of their Afghan police trainees opened fire on them during a visit of a checkpoint in the same province.
Three Afghan army soldiers were also killed on Saturday when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb blast in the same turbulent Helmand, Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Taliban militants rely heavily on use of roadside bombs as part of their campaign aimed at toppling the Western-backed Afghan government. Seventeen Taliban militants were killed and one was arrested in southern province of Zabul in a fight with Afghan forces, which was supported by Nato's airstrikes, according to the Afghan Army.
The air and ground assaults on Taliban fighters started after the militants targeted an Afghan army outpost in Naw Bahar district of the province with artillery fires on Saturday, the statement said, adding that there were no casualties among the combined forces. Nine other militants were killed in different clashes with Afghan security forces in south-western province of Farah on Saturday, Faqir Askar, the provincial police chief said.
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