Twenty-two Taliban fighters have been killed in two clashes with U.S. and local troops in Afghanistan, the US military said today.
Thirteen militants were killed in an operation at the weekend in the southern province of Kandahar, it said in a statement.
Three American, three Afghan and two other soldiers from the US-led foreign force were wounded in the attack aimed at a cell responsible for carrying out attacks with improvised explosive devices, the statement said.
The military said nine other insurgents were killed yesterday in a joint operation in neighbouring Uruzgan province.
Six Taliban fighters and a large cache of arms were captured in the Uruzgan fighting, in which one Afghan soldier died, the provincial governor, Jan Mohammad Khan, said.
The US military said air support had been called in during the Uruzgan clash, which followed an attack on patrolling Afghan and US troops. It said there were no US casualties.
Uruzgan and Kandahar were Taliban bastions until U.S.-led forces overthrew their government in 2001.
The southern region has seen a spate of violence in the past week in which two US CH-47 Chinook helicopters were forced to make hard landings after being fired on by Taliban insurgents.
This year has been the bloodiest for US troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 war. Nearly 60 American soldiers have been killed in Taliban-linked attacks, most in the south and east where the insurgents are most active.