KABUL - THE US-led coalition in Afghanistan said Friday it had killed 11 Taliban militants in an operation against a network behind a series of roadside bombings, including some that killed foreign soldiers.
Another two suspected militants were arrested in the raid on Thursday in the southern province of Kandahar, the US military said in a statement.
It said the head of the extremist cell was among those killed in the district of Maiwand, a Taleban stronghold about 75km west of the provincial capital of Kandahar.
Militants barricaded inside a compound had opened fire on the troops who retaliated with gunfire and hand grenades.
'After neutralising the threat, the force searched the buildings, discovering 11 militants were killed,' the statement said.
They also found a wounded woman inside the building who was taken to a military hospital for treatment.
The targeted cell had been responsible for 'multiple roadside bomb attacks including recent attacks which killed multiple ISAF (International Security Assistance Forces) soldiers,' the statement said.
There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
The Nato-led ISAF and the coalition under US command have deployed a combined total of nearly 70,000 soldiers here to help the government tackle a Taleban-led insurgency and rebuild a country devastated by decades of war.
Troops at the militant compound found dozens of landmines, grenades and machine-guns as well as bomb-making material, which they destroyed, the statement said. One building collapsed in secondary blasts caused by the mines.
About 290 international troops have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, many of them in bombings - the militants' main form of attack.
The Taleban took up arms in Kandahar province in the early 1990s and seized government in 1996 before being ousted in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
This year has been the worst of the insurgency with growing violence alarming Kabul and its international allies, some of whom have pledged extra troops and resources to tackle the insurgent threat. -- AFP
