Nearly 35 Taliban were killed in the latest strikes in Afghanistan as Afghan and coalition troops took back a district that had been in rebel hands for some days, officials said.
Coalition planes also bombed an 'enemy' stronghold in the south while an Afghan working for a Bangladeshi aid group was shot dead in the north and an influential tribal chief and top provincial health official were killed elsewhere.
Dozens of troops were dropped from coalition aircraft into a remote, mountainous district of Uruzgan province late on Friday who recaptured the area which had been overrun by Taleban nearly three days earlier, the defence ministry said. "At least 15 Taleban dead bodies were found. The overall Taleban casualties are believed to be 20," it said in a statement.
The forces met "limited resistance" as the rebels fled Chora district about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north-west of provincial capital Tarin Khowt, the US-led coalition said.
"Coalition air power engaged and killed several insurgents...," its the statement said. A spokesman for Kandahar governor said another 12 suspected Taleban were killed after police resisted an attack on a checkpost in the southern province late on Friday. Five more were killed in an Afghan security sweep of Ghazni province, police said.
The US-led coalition announced meanwhile that it had dropped three precision guided bombs on "enemy extremists" loading munitions into a truck from a cave in southern Helmand province. It was too early to say how many people had been killed in the strike on Friday on Musa Qala district, it said in a statement. Musa Qala is a known Taleban stronghold.
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