Agence France-Presse,
NATO-led troops said Monday they had killed several key Taliban militants in a series of airstrikes and raids in southern Afghanistan during the past week.
The raids in the insurgency-hit southern province of Helmand were part of a major NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) offensive launched by some 5,000 Afghan and foreign troops early last month, it said.
“ISAF, in joint operations with Afghan forces, launched a series of attacks and precision strikes against Taliban extremists in Helmand this week resulting in the elimination of several key extremist leaders,” it said in a statement.
It did not give any further details on the identities or ranks of the Taliban leaders, nor of the locations or dates of the attacks.
“Striking at the heart of the problem and removing these key leaders has paid off,” the statement quoted ISAF Commander for southern Afghanistan Major General Ton van Loon as saying.
“We fully realise the influence these Taliban extremist leaders have on the population of southern Afghanistan, who have clearly told us they felt like they were hostages in their own communities,” the general said.
The hardline Taliban regime was ousted from power in 2001 by US-led forces but has since regrouped to lead a bloody insurgency that has left nearly 1,000 people dead this year alone.
Around 37,000 NATO-led troops and a separate force of nearly 12,000 US-led coalition soliders are in Afghanistan to hunt down the rebels, who are trying to topple the US-backed government in Kabul.
