Khost, Afghanistan: Up to 60 Taliban fighters were killed in air and ground attacks on militants near southeastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, the NATO-led force said today.

The militants were spotted in the province of Paktika late Friday preparing to attack, spokesmen for NATO's International Security Assistance Force told AFP. Security forces struck first and "up to 60 Taliban were killed," said Major Donald Korpi.
Afghan and ISAF forces "saw a group of insurgents preparing to attack various targets inside Afghanistan" in the district of Barmal, said Major John Thomas, another ISAF spokesman. "They were clearly armed and they were clearly hostile and that is why they were engaged," he said.

"There was one group of 45 and multiple groups of eight to ten inside Afghanistan preparing to conduct an assault on a forward operating base in the vicinity." Thomas said forces from the US-led coalition "conducted combined air and artillery strikes as the insurgents attempted to flee across the border with Pakistan."

He did not have a figure for the dead but did not dispute the toll released by Korpi, saying such numbers were arrived at through various battle damage assessments.

Commanders in the area said it was the largest formation of militants there since January, Thomas said.

On January 11 air and ground strikes on insurgents spotted infiltrating into Afghanistan from Pakistan killed up to 150 of them, ISAF said at the time.

The Taliban's leadership is believed to have fled into Pakistan when the coalition drove them from power in 2001. The extremist movement and its Al-Qaeda allies are said to have training grounds just across the porous border.