Afghan raids kill up to 40 Taliban

Up to 40 Taliban-linked militants have been killed in separate raids by Afghan and NATO troops in northern and central Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

In the biggest single raid in weeks, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said two dozen insurgents were killed in northern Kunduz province overnight.

“An Afghan-international security force killed more than two dozen insurgents and captured several others while pursuing a senior Taliban commander in Kunduz last night,” it said in a statement. The rebels were killed in clashes which erupted after the troops came under fire from a mosque and nearby woods, the military said.

An operation to disrupt the militants’ movement in the province was continuing, it added.

Mohammad Razaq Youqoubi, Kunduz provincial police chief, told AFP that 26 Taliban were killed during the operation by Afghan and coalition forces.

He said six militants were captured and four suicide vests, which the Taliban often use in their attacks, were destroyed.

Elsewhere in the country, 14 Taliban-linked militants were killed in a similar raid in the province of Ghazni, in central Afghanistan, said Khialbaz Sherzai, a provincial police chief.