Afghan and foreign troops battled with Taliban militants and called in air strikes in a series of clashes in the country's south that left 40 insurgents dead, an official said Sunday. The joint force clashed with militants in the mountainous Shah Wail Kit district in KANDAHAR province during a three-day operation that ended Saturday and left 35 insurgents dead, said provincial police chief Spayed Abha Sahib. Ten other insurgents were detained near the militants' mountainous hide-outs, which they used to launch attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the area, Sahib said. Authorities recovered the militants' bodies along with their automatic weapons and ammunition, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. In KANDAHAR Shari district, Afghan and foreign troops clashed with another group of militants hiding in a compound Saturday night, killing five militants and detaining four others, Sahib said. Among those killed was a regional militant commander, Mullah Fibula, he said. There were no casualties among Afghan or foreign troops during the operations, Sahib said. The reports could not be independently verified because the areas are remote and inaccessible. This year has been the most violent since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Insurgency-related violence has claimed nearly 6,200 lives, according to a tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.
