Taleban fighters 'killed in raid'

Afghan officials say 12 suspected Taleban fighters have been killed by US-led coalition forces in south-eastern Afghanistan.

The forces called in air strikes after militants attacked a former Afghan military chief on the road between Kabul and Gardez, the officials said.

The aircraft pounded militant hideouts in the Shawak mountains east of Gardez.

Two coalition soldiers were wounded. The Afghan general, the former military chief of Khost province, was unhurt.

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The police chief of Paktia province, Maj Gen Haygul Sulemankhil, said attackers had fired two rockets at the vehicle of Gen Khyaal Baz Sherzai on the Khost-Gardez highway on Monday.

Ground forces called in US helicopter gunships and A10 tank buster jets.

Winter lull

"Afghan forces chased the attackers in the mountains and the fighting began," a security official told the AFP news agency. "It lasted until late afternoon."

He added: "We recovered the bodies of 12 Taleban in the Shawak mountains."

The US military in Afghanistan confirmed the fighting but could not give casualty figures.

A spokesman for the Taleban, Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi, said the Taleban had lost "only one fighter".

There has been an increase recently in militant activity, particularly in the south and east of the country, after a lull during the winter.

The US has about 18,000 military personnel in the country hunting the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taleban.