80 killed in Afghanistan violence
Soaring violence in southern Afghanistan has claimed the lives of scores of militants, as well as five Afghan security forces and a British soldier.
Some 71 militants were killed in fierce fighting that began late Saturday and continued into yesterday after the Taliban attacked a police convoy in Kandahar province’s Panjwayi district, said Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, the district government chief.
In the neighbouring southern province of Helmand, a separate clash yesterday with insurgents left one British soldier dead and three others wounded, the Ministry of Defence said.
The death brought to 20 the number of British soldiers killed since they deployed to Afghanistan in November 2001.
Also in Helmand, a roadside bomb killed three policemen travelling on the main highway linking Murja and Lashkar Gah districts of the southern Helmand province, said Ghulam Muhaddin, the provincial governor’s spokesman.
Muhaddin blamed Taliban militants for the blast, but declined to provide further details.
