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KABUL, April 8: Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed three Taliban, including two commanders directly linked to deadly attacks, and captured five more in a series of operations, the coalition said on Saturday. The Taliban were killed in volatile southern Helmand province which has seen several clashes including a March 29 attack on a coalition base that was one of the biggest in months and left two foreign troops and 32 attackers dead.
The first commander was killed on Friday in Helmand’s Musa Qala district, the coalition said in a statement.
He was directly involved in bomb blasts that had “killed and crippled multiple Afghans” since 2001
He was also responsible for the deaths of Afghan army and coalition soldiers, the statement said.
The second commander, described as an “operational-level terrorist leader”, was killed early on Saturday in Helmand’s Sangin district, where the base was attacked.
A lower level Taliban was also killed in Saturday’s operation in which “coalition forces used close-air support to destroy an insurgent headquarters...”
“Once our ground forces seized the objective, we confirmed that two Taliban were killed, and we captured two terrorists,” coalition commander Major General Benjamin C. Freakley said.
Afghan and coalition forces meanwhile captured three Taliban insurgents on Saturday in Kandahar province, a separate statement said.
SUICIDE ATTACK: A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside a compound for Nato-led troops in western Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two Afghans in the latest in a string of such blasts, officials said.
The explosion just outside the gates of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Herat was immediately claimed by insurgents loyal to the Taliban.
The powerful blast, which was heard throughout the city, sent shards of glass flying, shattered windows of nearby houses and cracked walls, witnesses said. It left a crater in the road, which was smeared with congealed blood.
“A suicide car bomb attack in front of the PRT office killed one Afghan guard and wounded three others,” intelligence director Mohammad Musa Rasouli said.
“The suicide attacker was driving a four-wheel-drive vehicle and detonated it in front of the PRT. It also damaged three other civilian cars nearby.”
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed the blast and said two Afghans were killed.
“Two local nationals died, another was seriously wounded. A civilian in the compound was lightly injured by flying glass,” Captain Giorgio Buonaiuto said in Kabul.
The compound houses 150 foreign personnel, most of them Italian troops, he said, correcting earlier reports that the base was manned by Spanish soldiers.
Police said a policeman had been killed and four others wounded.
A purported spokesman for the Taliban was responsible for the attack.
“It was a suicide attack carried out by a citizen from Herat named Abdul Rahim,” Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone. “The attack was aimed at foreign troops,” he said.
On Friday, a suicide blast outside a base for British and US troops in the southern province of Helmand wounded two US soldiers and an American civilian.
The Taliban said it was also responsible for the blast outside the main gates of a PRT in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.—AFP
