13 suspected Taliban killed in mountain clash

US and Afghan troops backed by warplanes fought Taliban militants in the mountains of southern Afghanistan overnight, killing 13 insurgents and arresting eight.

Two American troops and one Afghan soldier were wounded in the fighting in Miana Shien district of Kandahar province, 150 miles south-west of the capital, Kabul, said Khalid Pashtun, spokesman for the provincial government.

Pashtun said 300 Afghan troops and a smaller number of Americans launched the operation on Wednesday night, skirmishing repeatedly with gunmen in the mountains of an area called Purlaiz.

He said Afghan authorities had recovered the bodies of 13 suspected Taliban killed in the fighting, and arrested eight others who were wounded.

The clash appeared to be one of the most deadly since the US military stepped up operations in the spring to combat resurgent Taliban militants.