100 Taliban killed in Afghan clashes

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- More than 100 Taliban fighters were killed in a pair of clashes with Afghan and NATO forces in Afghanistan's Helmand province, officials said Sunday.

An attack on Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province, was repelled Saturday with more than 60 militants killed, a local official said. NATO and Afghan forces teamed to battle Taliban militants targeting the residence of Helmand's provincial governor, the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, reported.

NATO warplanes conducted air strikes while Afghan army troops battled Taliban militants on the ground. Brig. Gen. Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, said the air-based counterattack killed many Taliban insurgents.

"If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure," Blanchette told KUNA.

Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand governor's office, said more than 60 of the attackers were killed in the ground battle and air strikes while more escaped, adding the fugitives were being sought for arrest.

Forty-six Taliban militants were also killed during a three-day operation that began Thursday in Helmand's Nad Ali district, CNN reported.