KANDAHAR, June 17: Ten Taliban were killed in fresh fighting in Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday, taking the rebel death toll to around 100 since a major new military operation was made public three days ago.

Seven died in the southern province of Kandahar, where the Taliban rose to take control of the government in 1996, in the hours-long gunfight that erupted after rebels stormed a district government office at midnight.

Afterwards, “the Taliban fled, leaving the seven bodies at the site,” interior ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP. “One police was also martyred and one was wounded in the several hours’ fighting.”

Three more Taliban were killed in neighbouring Helmand province late Friday when a bomb they were planting in a road exploded, provincial spokesman Muhaidin Khan told AFP.

The new violence came after the coalition announced late Friday that 45 Taliban were killed in strikes in Uruzgan province that fell under Operation Mountain Thrust, the biggest drive against the rebel movement since it was toppled in late 2001.

Coalition forces killed “an estimated 40 insurgents while they were meeting at a known enemy camp,” in western Uruzgan, a statement said. The meeting included members of a cell tasked with making bombs, financiers and area leaders responsible for numerous attacks, the coalition statement said.

Afghan and coalition forces also raided a Taliban compound northeast of the provincial capital Tirin Kot, killing five insurgents, it said.—AFP