Fifteen suspected militants killed in Afghanistan

Afghan and Nato troops killed 15 suspected militants during clashes in southern Afghanistan, where authorities also arrested a senior Taliban commander, officials said today.

The joint forces fought with militants in the Zhari district of Kandahar province as part of a week-long operation in the area, a Defence Ministry statement said.

Fifteen militants were killed during the fighting yesterday and authorities recovered a number of weapons and ammunition, the statement said.

Today Taliban militants ambushed a Nato supply convoy in the Andar district of central Ghazni province, sparking a clash that left two Afghan security guards and two insurgents dead, said district chief Abdul Rahim Desewal.

Five other guards and two militants were wounded, Desewal said.

Nato convoys are usually protected by Afghan guards. Militants regularly attack trucks that haul supplies for the alliance and US-led coalition troops in the country.

Meanwhile, police nabbed a militant leader named Abdul Jabar, described as the deputy of another arrested militant leader, Mansoor Dadullah, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Jabar was detained in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s most important southern city and the Taliban’s former stronghold, while on his way to Pakistan, the ministry said.

Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of murdered Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah, was detained in February by authorities in Pakistan.

Mansoor Dadullah was dismissed as the movement’s top commander in southern Afghanistan by the militia’s leader, Mullah Omar, shortly before his arrest.