KABUL, July 6: Air and ground strikes killed around 30 Taliban in southern Afghanistan on Friday, the defence ministry said, as Nato’s force announced it had lost two more soldiers in the fight.

There were claims that around 30 civilians were killed in bombing raids in the east.

The Taliban were killed in Uruzgan where the US-led coalition said it had sent fighter planes to help out forces which had come under heavy attack overnight.

The coalition said only that the clashes in Charchino district had “killed a significant number of insurgents”. “We asked for air support from friendly forces,” defence ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP. “In total as a result of air strikes and ground forces’ action, 33 Taliban were killed and their bodies are left at the battlefield.” Militants’ weapons also littered the site. Police said up to 30 Taliban were killed.

A resident of Kunar said aircraft had on Thursday bombed a civilian house, killing nine people, and then on Friday struck their funeral, killing 27 more. A member of the upper house, Saleh Mohammad, said: “According to my information from the region, around 30 civilians have been killed in Watapour.”

Isaf announced that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in the same area on Thursday.

More Isaf soldiers were wounded in a suicide bombing on the outskirts of Kabul.—AFP