Wire: Officials Say 22 Taliban Killed in Afghanistan

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2009 -- Newswires reported this morning that at least 22 Taliban militants, including three regional commanders, were killed overnight in fighting in southern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Friday. A British soldier was also killed in a bomb blast, officials said.

The Associated Press reported that a band of Taliban fighters attacked two police checkpoints in Nawzad district Thursday, taking control of the stations and forcing the officers to flee, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province.

The police launched a counterattack with the help of an airstrike, killing 22 insurgents, Ahmadi said. Three Taliban chiefs in Nawzad and surrounding districts were among the dead, he said, adding that no Afghan forces died in the fighting.

The Reuters news agency said NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could not immediately confirm the operation.

The attack came on the same day that Taliban militants attacked a prison.

The militants were unable to break into the prison they attacked Friday in eastern Laghman province.

(Report from newswire sources.)

Sources:
Afghan official: 22 Taliban killed in south
22 Taliban killed in Afghanistan: police

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