KABUL, June 25: A total of 178 Taliban fighters were killed and 56 captured in three days of fighting in south Afghanistan, one of the group’s bloodiest setbacks since their 2001 overthrow, the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

But senior Taliban commanders thought to have been in the area of the US-backed operation, in the region where the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul meet, escaped, ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman said.

“From the start of this joint operation, on June 21, until last night, 178 Taliban were killed and 56 arrested,” he said.

The Interior Ministry, which on Friday gave a toll of 109 guerillas dead, said most were killed by US air strikes.

The US military on Wednesday gave an estimate of 40-50 guerillas dead, but has not provided any fresh estimates.

The Defence Ministry said on Thursday that Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by Mullah Mohammad Omar, were surrounded in the operation, but Paiman said they had apparently escaped.

“If they had been killed, we would have found their dead bodies; if they had been arrested, we would recognise them,” he said. “It means they have escaped.”

US and Afghan forces have reported killing more than 200 insurgents in the past week alone and more than 300 since March in their drive to protect Sept 18 parliamentary elections.

A month-long voter registration period began on Saturday, but UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Jean Arnault, briefing the UN Security Council on Friday, said worsening security made it necessary to attack the insurgents’ financing, safe havens and support networks as well as use military force.—Reuters