Afghan soldiers backed by international air support killed more than 20 Taleban insurgents in the east and west of the country on Friday, a provincial police chief and the US military said on Saturday. Violence has risen in Afghanistan this year with about 2,500 people, including 1,000 civilians, killed so far in fighting between insurgents and foreign and Afghan forces, aid agencies say. In the first incident, Afghan and coalition forces killed 20 Taleban militants in the western province of Farah, provincial police chief Khalilullah Rahmani told Reuters. “The Taleban were gathering for a meeting in an area of Bala Boluk district,” he said. “An air strike targeted the meeting and killed 20 of them.” Fourteen people were wounded. A spokesman for the US-led coalition forces said attack helicopters took part after soldiers came under attack. “Coalition forces received small arms and indirect fire from an unknown number of anti-Afghan forces,” the spokesman said, adding that coalition forces suffered no damage or casualties. He did not specify whether any insurgents were killed or wounded in the incident. In a separate incident, the US military said coalition forces killed a known militant in an air strike in the eastern province of Paktika on Friday. Coalition forces identified a separate militant group “maneuvering” against them and responded with small arms fire killing several, it said. A woman was injured in the clash was airlifted to a coalition medical facility. Elsewhere, a child was killed and two were wounded when insurgents attacked soldiers of the NATO-led force on Friday in the northeastern province of Kunar, the force said in a statement on Saturday. “This is the second attack in this area during the past two weeks in which insurgents have killed Afghan children,” it said. Fighting has spread from the south and east into areas such as Farah as the six-year-old Taleban-led insurgency has gathered steam.
