30 Taliban, two intelligence workers killed in Afghan clashes

Kabul - Thirty Taliban militants were killed in clashes with NATO and Afghan forces in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. A statement from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said 25 Taliban fighters were killed in the southern Kandahar province Tuesday night in a raid on rebel hideouts. NATO and Afghan forces raided Taliban compounds used for making roadside bombs near the Belandi area, the statement said. Explosives and weapons were also found in the compounds after the operation ended, it said. Elsewhere, ISAF and Afghan troops said they killed a Taliban commander involved in roadside attacks in the southwestern Farah province. They also captured three other rebels in the provincial capital Farah on Monday. In the southern province of Zabul, local officials say two intelligence officials and four Taliban fighters were killed in separate incidents. Provincial police chief Ghulam Jailani Farahi said Taliban fighters ambushed a vehicle carrying local intelligence officials late Tuesday near the provincial capital Qalat. The Taliban said they killed three intelligence officials in the attack. The Zabul police chief said four Taliban fighters were killed in Siori district of the province as they attacked a joint patrol of Afghan and foreign troops Tuesday night. In Helmand province, where NATO-led British troops have launched a major offensive, ISAF said its troops killed a driver after he failed to heed warnings to stop his car in the Babaji area, north of the provincial capital Lashkargah. 'Following standard ISAF procedures and suspecting the vehicle carried a suicide bomber who represented an imminent threat to life, the ISAF troops acted in self defence and fired upon the vehicle,' the military said. Another person in the car was wounded. Meanwhile, the Taliban said they destroyed a military vehicle of NATO troops and killed several soldiers in an attack in Babaji area on Tuesday. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said NATO and Afghan forces landed in the desert of Babaji three days ago and that the militants had heavily mined the area to prevent troop advances.