KABUL (AFP) — Afghan security forces backed by foreign troops killed eight Taliban-linked insurgents during operations in troubled southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
Seven rebels were killed in a sweep in the province of Uruzgan, an infamous Taliban hotbed near the Pakistani border, the interior ministry said.
Another militant was killed and a suspect detained during an operation in neighbouring Kandahar, the US military said.
US forces also said an air strike on Tuesday destroyed a Soviet-era "anti-aircraft weapon system" in Helmand, another Taliban flashpoint.
"Coalition Forces learned through villagers? reports that militants in Nad Ali had obtained a ZPU-1 anti-aircraft gun and were staging it on the back of a pick-up truck for use against friendly forces," it said.
Taliban rebels generally lack anti-aircraft weaponry although the Islamist fighters have been able to down some military helicopters since launching an uprising after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Sixteen American servicemen were killed in 2006 when rebels shot down a Chinook helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade in the mountains of eastern Kunar province.
The US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from government in late 2001. The hardliners are now the main militant group waging an increasingly deadly insurgency concentrated in much of southern and eastern Afghanistan.
About 70,000 foreign troops are stationed in the country with the United States preparing to deploy an extra 21,000 troops as part of a sweeping new strategy to counter the insurgency.
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