June 25, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1429

KHOST, June 24: Nato warplanes and Afghan forces killed 26 militants, while one Nato soldier died and three others were wounded in a separate attack, officials said on Tuesday. The violence made June one of the bloodiest months so far in an insurgency launched by Taliban rebels after its ouster from government by US-led forces in 2001.

Several foreign militants were among the dead after the airstrike on Tuesday by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force in the eastern province of Paktia, near the border with Pakistan, officials said.

Insurgents opened fire on the headquarters of the province’s Sayed Karam district but were driven away after a gunbattle which caused slight damage to the building, provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon said.

“Nato helicopters then bombed the militants and killed 14 militants on the spot. Our policemen arrested another four wounded, and one of the wounded also died in hospital,” Samoon said.

Many of those killed were Pakistanis, Samoon said, adding that the injured rebels were from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

The rebel attack came a day after the separate US-led coalition said airstrikes and clashes had killed 55 militants.

Meanwhile, 11 Taliban militants and three policemen were killed after an attack by rebels on a police post in southern Kandahar province overnight, police said.

“We launched a counterattack today. Eleven Taliban have been killed so far and their bodies are on the ground,” Juma Gul Hemat, the police chief of neighbouring Uruzgan province, said.—AFP