Coalition airstrike kills 7 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- At least seven suspected Taliban insurgents were killed Tuesday when coalition forces carried out an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday. A number of explosives and weapons were recovered from the scene.

The airstrike happened at around 1 a.m. local time on Tuesday when a group of insurgents were planting roadside bombs in the Shahwali Koot District of Kandahar province, which is located in Afghanistan's volatile southern region that was the birthplace of the Taliban movement two decades ago.

The governor's office said eight Taliban-linked insurgents were killed in the airstrike, which took place on a highway that links Kandahar to neighboring Uruzgan province. "No civilians were harmed in the attack," the office said, adding that security forces recovered 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), three radios, four motorbikes, and five AK-47 assault rifles.

A spokesperson for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed its forces carried out an airstrike, but put the number of insurgents killed at seven. "We can confirm an ISAF precision strike killed seven enemies of Afghanistan in Kandahar province on June 18. We are continuing to assess the situation at this time," the spokesperson said.

In a separate incident in Kandahar province, two Taliban-linked insurgents were killed when their own explosives detonated prematurely. "The two people were killed while trying to plant IEDs on roads in Kareez area of Buldak District," a governor's office spokesperson said, adding that weapons and ammunition was seized by Afghan security forces.

(Copyright 2013 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)