KABUL, Aug 25: Up to 50 Taliban fighters were killed in a big air and ground operation by US and Afghan forces against hundreds of guerillas on Monday in the southern province of Zabul, a spokesman for the governor said.

“The deaths were the result of heavy bombing by US forces and ground attacks by government forces,” Hamdullah Watandoost told Reuters. “We have seen 40 to 50 dead bodies.”

He said the Taliban fighters were killed in the Dozi area of Zabul’s Dai Chopan district and the guerillas’ main base there had been overrun.

“Our mopping-up operation continues and we have besieged the entire Taliban force who have no way to escape,” he said.

Juman Khan, the police chief of Dai Chopan, said warplanes from the US-led forces in Afghanistan had pounded mountain areas where up to 600 Taliban fighters were thought to be holed up after launching attacks on Friday and Saturday.

He said ground forces, which included about 450 Afghans and two dozen Americans, had captured up to 40 suspects though these could include innocent people. He said the government and Americans had not suffered any casualties.

“The rest of Taliban, I think, have fled,” he said. “The bombing has just ended because of darkness. As far as I can see, the Taliban have been defeated totally here and we have captured their bases.”

Khan described the Taliban force scattered over rugged terrain as one of the biggest concentrations since the fundamentalist group was overthrown in a US-led campaign in late 2001.

He said it included fighters blamed for bloody attacks in Zabul and Uruzgan province on Friday and Saturday.—Reuters