KANDAHAR, April 15: Forty-one suspected Taliban and six policemen were killed in a major battle in southern Afghanistan in an area where the Taliban leader once lived, a governor said on Saturday.

The battle southwest of Kandahar city lasted almost the entire day on Friday, with helicopters from the US-led coalition firing rockets assisting Afghan forces on the ground.

“In the result, 41 Taliban were killed, a big number of them were wounded,” Kandahar governor Assadullah Khalid said.

Six police were killed, nine police were wounded, he said, adding that three civilians were also wounded and 13 Taliban arrested.

The dead included a district police chief while a district governor was among the wounded, he said.

A resident of one village in the area said a 19-year-old girl was killed and two children wounded in police fire but this was not confirmed by officials.

The village, Sartak, was quiet on Saturday but bore signs of the fighting with craters in some buildings from rocket fire and walls pocked with bulletholes, an reporter said.

Khalid said Taliban fighters had gathered in the area, which includes the Panjwayi and Zarai districts about 40 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city, for about three days after fleeing an offensive in Helmand province.

A Taliban spokesman said the battle had started with a Taliban attack. The spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, only acknowledged two Taliban deaths.

“Late in the day the US planes appeared and Taliban escaped the area. Lots of civilians were killed by the bombing in the village,” Ahmadi said by telephone from an unknown location.—AFP