Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded scores of Taliban insurgents in a joint air and ground operation in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defence Ministry said yesterday. The ministry did not give an exact number of militants killed in the latest clash near the town of Deh Rawood in the province of Uruzgan on Saturday, but Afghan security sources said nearly 50 Taliban fighters had died. «The bodies of the militants are on the grounds and Mullah Hashim, a well-known commander of the group, was among those killed,» the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

NATO forces in Uruzgan are under the command of Dutch troops.

Meanwhile, US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed more than a dozen Taliban insurgents during an air strike in the Deh Rawood district of the same province on Friday, a U.S. military statement said.

The statement did not say how many militants died but an Afghan provincial police chief said 13 were killed.

Elsewhere in the south, a mine killed two soldiers from the US-led coalition in the province of Kandahar, a US military statement said.

«Coalition forces, along with Afghan National Security Forces, were conducting a security patrol in the Zharmi District when their vehicle struck a mine placed on a frequently travelled road,» said the statement, issued late on Saturday.