Afghan troops were on Wednesday hunting up to 200 suspected Taleban after 20 militants were killed by US warplanes and Afghan ground forces during a clash with militants hiding out in mountains bordering Pakistan, officials said.
The planes on Tuesday bombed Afghanistan, near the border town of Spin Boldak about 470 kilometres (290 miles) south-west of Kabul, where around 200 Taleban suspects armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and AK-47 rifles were hiding, Kandahar intelligence chief Abdullah Laghmanai said.
"During the operation 20 Taleban were killed, two of them were senior commanders," Laghmanai told AFP. He named the two Taleban commanders as Qari Faizullah and Qari Ali Mohammed.
"The operation is still on going with government troops chasing down Taleban to the Pakistani border. According to our intelligence we estimated that 200 Taleban were in the area and now they have scattered."
Kandahar military spokesman General Abdul Wasay said US air support came in when Taleban fighters attacked the district.
"But government troops in the district, numbering 60 to 100 people, resisted and defeated their attackers," he said, leaving more than 20 Taleban dead from either the bombardment or ground forces.
A US military spokesman said coalition planes bombed an area north of Spin Boldak after a US patrol came under attack from an unknown number of insurgents but could not confirm if any attackers were killed.
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