Kabul: Afghan forces, backed by NATO aircrafts, have killed 12 Taliban insurgents and a group commander in the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, a police officer said Sunday.

In the operation in Jalai district Saturday night, 13 insurgents including their commander Mullah Abdul Khaliq were killed, provincial police chief Syed Aqa Saqib told Xinhua.

Taliban militants have not made any comment.

Afghan forces, backed by the US-led coalition troops Saturday killed over 15 insurgents in a farm compound west of Rawonay in Kandahar, during a hunt for escaped prisoners from Kandahar jail, the coalition said in an earlier statement.

Escalating violence in Afghanistan left 8,000 people, mostly rebels, dead last year.

 

Source : IANS