Several Taliban fighters were killed in a firefight with Afghan security forces in the southeast province of Khost near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said on Friday. The clash occurred opposite Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency, where Pakistan government forces have been battling al Qaeda and other militants intermittently for months. "Several anti-coalition militants were killed and two members of the Khost provincial forces were injured in a firefight last night in Khost province," the U.S. military said. An Afghan security officer said three Taliban were killed and one captured while two of his own men had been wounded in the fighting in Gurboz district, 175 km (110 miles) southeast of Kabul. A Taliban spokesman said five government troops were killed and three Taliban fighters were wounded. Taliban fighters have stepped up attacks in the run-up to a historic presidential election on Oct. 9. In a separate attack, rockets were fired into in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Friday and an Afghan woman and child were slightly wounded. One of the rockets hit the premises of a Swedish aid organisation but no aid workers were hurt, a security coordinator for aid groups said. Some 18,000 U.S. led troops are hunting Taliban and al Qaeda members across the south and southeast of Afghanistan, on the border with Pakistan.
