Taliban killed in Kandahar: US

KABUL: The US-led coalition and Afghan forces have killed a suspected Taliban commander and three of his fighters in southern Afghanistan, while six other alleged rebels died in a clash with Afghan police, officials said on Monday.

Payenda Mohammed, who was thought to have led about 150 rebels, was killed in a fierce battle in Kandahar province on Wednesday, said US military spokesman Col James Yonts. He was believed responsible for numerous rocket attacks, ambushes and other guerrilla-style assaults.

At least three other militants were killed and 15 others were wounded in the fighting, in which A-10 warplanes and attack helicopters bombed caves along a ridge where the militants had sought shelter and had stashed vehicles and weapons, Yonts said. No Afghan or coalition troops were wounded.

On Sunday, Afghan police fought a two-hour gunbattle with about 30 Taliban rebels, believed responsible for an ambush on a civilian vehicle earlier in the day in Shahjoy district of the volatile southern province of Zabul. agencies

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