Clashes and an airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed 13 suspected Taliban militants and three police, officials said Monday. The three police died Monday when militants attacked a checkpoint on the road linking the southern town of Kandahar with Spin Boldak on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, The Associated Press quoted Kandahar province's police chief Esmatullah Alizai as saying. A NATO airstrike, meanwhile, targeted a compound housing Taliban militants in Shahjoy district of Zabul province on Sunday, killing seven suspected militants inside, said Ubaidallah Khan, the district's police chief. Also Sunday, NATO-led troops and police clashed with suspected Taliban militants in Kandahar's Zhari district, leaving six militants dead, Alizai said. Police recovered the militants' bodies and their weapons, he said. There were no NATO or police casualties in that clash.
