NATO and Afghan forces have killed about 50 Taliban fighters in the past few days in an operation in southern Afghanistan, an alliance spokesman said today.
The operation, dubbed Falcon's Summit, was launched on Friday and focused on the Panjwai and Zari districts in Kandahar province, the same area that was the focus in September of one of the biggest offensives since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
There were no casualties among NATO and Afghan forces in the latest operation, said NATO spokesman Brigadier Richard Nugee.
"We have cleared one large and two small villages of Taliban. We have killed a reasonable number of Taliban ... it is in the range of about 50," Nugee told a news conference in Kabul.
The Taliban could not be contacted immediately for comment.
Kandahar is the Taliban's birthplace and the September operation killed several hundred guerrillas, NATO says.
The Taliban and their Islamic allies are mostly active in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan where they have safe havens and support from ethnic allies.
More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, have died in violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since the Taliban's fall. About 160 foreign troops have also died.
NATO leads about 32,000 troops in Afghanistan and the US-led coalition commands about 8,000 more.
The coalition invaded Afghanistan after the Taliban leadership refused to hand over al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the architect of Sept. attacks on the United States.