US forces kill dozen Taliban in Afghanistan

A battle in southern Afghanistan between US-led coalition forces and Taliban militants left more than a dozen insurgents dead, the coalition said.

Insurgents attacked the coalition soldiers, along with accompanying Afghan security forces, with rocket propelled grenades and gunfire while they were on a patrol in northern Helmand province on Thursday, the coalition said.

Attack aircraft helped repel the initial Taliban attack, though the fighters tried to reinforce their numbers through out the engagement, which lasted several hours, the coalition said.

This year has been the most violent since the US-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power in 2001.

More than 5,200 people have died in insurgency related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Elsewhere, a remote-control bomb exploded next to a police vehicle in eastern Paktia province, killing two police, said Din Mohammad Dirwesh, the governor’s spokesman.

Four police were wounded in the blast.

A tribal elder close to the government, meanwhile, was killed by gunmen, Dirwesh said.

The elder had been threatened by the “enemy” several times to sever his ties with the government, he said.