12 Taliban die in firefight, Afghan military says

Oct 23, 2007, 9:24 GMT

Kabul - The Afghan military said Tuesday that it killed 12 suspected Taliban militants in central Afghanistan while US forces said they arrested five insurgents in the south.

The Afghan Army operation was carried out Monday on intelligence information about the presence of Taliban militants in the Jalrez district of Wardak province, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

A firefight resulted in which 12 insurgents were killed but the military side suffered no casualties, the statement said.

Wardak, a neighboring province of the capital, Kabul, has seen a series of clashes pitting Afghan and international forces against Taliban militants, who are most entrenched in southern and eastern provinces of the country.

In a separate incident, US-led coalition forces arrested five suspected militants Monday night in the southern province of Kandahar, the US military said in a statement.

Intelligence sources indicated several militants were preparing to leave for an unknown location and coalition forces were dispatched to intercept them before they left the area, the statement said.

More than 5,300 people, mostly Taliban fighters, have been killed in violence in the country this year.