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Taliban leader among militants killed in latest Afghan violence

Other News Materials 12 December 2010 13:12 (UTC +04:00)

A senior insurgent leader was among three killed in latest NATO operations across Afghanistan, the alliance military said Sunday, dpa reportred.

   The Taliban leader identified as Fedahi was killed along with an associate during a security operation in Sayyidabad district of central province of Wardak late Saturday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

   Fedahi was involved in heavy weapons facilitation and attacks on coalition forces, the statement said.

   According to NATO, he was the seventh Taliban leader to be captured or killed in the district this month.

   In another incident, Afghan and coalition forces killed one suspected insurgent and detained 10 others during an operation targeting a Taliban shadow governor in Sherzad district of the eastern province of Nangarhar on Saturday.

   The insurgent was killed after he opened fire on the joint Afghan and ISAF forces, the statement said, adding that no soldiers were hurt in the attack.

   In eastern province of Khost on Saturday, the joint Afghan and coalition forces operation captured a senior Haqqani network leader, ISAF said in a separate statement.

   The 30th arrest of a Haqqani leader since the beginning of November was made during an operation in the Terizai district of the restive province, NATO said in a statement.

   The Haqqani group is associated with the Taliban insurgency, and has close ties to al-Qaeda. The group is considered responsible for several suicide bombings including in Kabul since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

   Nearly 150,000 international forces are currently fighting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

   The latest operations came after ISAF claimed late Saturday that its forces, backed by Afghan troops, killed at least 40 insurgents in eastern and southern Afghanistan on Saturday and Friday.

   A total of 25 suspected insurgents were killed by the combined troops in Nari district of eastern province of Kunar, while others were killed in separate operation in the province's Darah-e-Pech district.

   Several other militants were killed in clashes in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

   The upsurge in violence comes as US President Barack Obama prepares to unveil a review of his Afghanistan war strategy this week.

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