US kills Taliban militants

AFGHAN and US-led coalition forces yesterday killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan.

One Afghan army soldier was killed and three coalition troops were wounded in the fighting near Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, 110 miles north of Kandahar, said US Sergeant Chris Miller.

The coalition soldiers were in stable condition, he said, declining to give their identities or nationalities. It wasn’t immediately clear if there had been airstrikes and if the coalition had recovered the bodies of the dead militants.

The fighting follows heavy clashes in neighbouring Kandahar province over the weekend that killed at least 19 militants and a Canadian coalition soldier.

During recent months, the south has been gripped by the bloodiest spate of violence since a US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.