Coalition forces kill over 30 Taliban fighters

Afghan and US-led coalition forces have killed more than 30 members of the Taliban in separate clashes in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

The latest clashes are part of a multinational offensive to crush the militant’s hold on the region, an Afghan official said today.

At least 27 militants were killed in the Sangin district village of Mirmundaze late yesterday, including local Taliban commander Baha Uddin, said provincial police chief Ghulan Nabi Malakhail. Another 18 Taliban fighters were wounded and 10 Taliban arrested, he said.

Mirmundaze is about 15 miles north of Sangin city, which hundreds of coalition forces had stormed earlier yesterday and reclaimed from Taliban forces. At least 10 militants were killed in that raid.

Another eight Taliban fighters were killed in nearby Khayar Kariz district after Afghan and coalition forces surrounded a militant hideout, Mr Malakhail said. Four wounded Taliban militants were arrested.

Violence across southern Afghanistan has killed about 800 people, mostly militants, since May, according to an Associated Press tally of coalition and Afghan figures. The bloodshed marks the deadliest period since US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Thousands of US, British, Canadian and Afghan forces are taking part in Operation Mountain Thrust, a large-scale anti-Taliban offensive across southern Afghanistan.

The US military also said it would cooperate in an Afghan government probe into reports that a coalition air raid killed civilians last Monday in southern Uruzgan province. The US military said it killed 40 extremists, but wounded residents said at least four civilians died.

President Hamid Karzai, who has repeatedly deplored coalition military operations that kill Afghans, ordered a second inquiry into yesterday’s air assault in the southern Helmand insurgent stronghold of Sangin, as well as last Wednesday’s fighting that involved British troops in nearby Nawzad. At least 29 insurgents died in both.

Separately, militants dressed as women killed two Afghan men and wounded another in a drive-by shooting yesterday, the US military said Sunday.

The militants were wearing burkas – the all-covering veil traditionally worn by Afghan women – when they attacked a car in the Zambar district of the southeastern Khost province, a military statement said.

The motive for the attack was unclear but the victims were believed to be acquaintances of the local police chief.

The attack came on the same day that more than 40 insurgents, including a local Taliban commander, were killed as hundreds of coalition troops reclaimed a town from extremists and US forces battled militants across the south, officials said.

Taliban militants have been targeting Afghans with links to local security and government forces in a bid to derail the country’s US-backed reconstruction.