Afghan and NATO-led forces killed or wounded scores of Taliban fighters in a joint air and ground operation in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
The Defense Ministry did not give an exact number of fighters killed in the latest clash near the town of Deh Rawood in the southern province of Uruzgan on Saturday, but Afghan security sources said nearly 50 Taliban fighters had died.
"The bodies of the militants are on the grounds and Mullah Hashim a well-known commander of the group was among those killed," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
NATO forces in Uruzgan are under the command of Dutch troops.
Elsewhere in the south, a mine killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a U.S. military statement said.
"Coalition forces, along with Afghan National Security Forces, were conducting a security patrol in the Zharmi District, when their vehicle struck a mine placed on a frequently traveled road," said the statement, issued late on Saturday.
Taliban fighters planted hundreds of mines and roadside bombs in 2007, contributing to a record year of violence that killed more than 6,000 people, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.
More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2007 while nearly 30 troops from the U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed since so far this year.
Taliban fighters are mainly active in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan that share long borders with neighboring Pakistan. Afghan officials have repeatedly claimed that fighters are trained, equipped, funded and have safe havens in other side of the border.
Afghan and NATO forces both say they need more troops to fight off Taliban fighters. The United States is pressing its NATO allies to come up with more troops and trainers for Afghan forces at a summit in early April.
PHOTO CAPTION
A U.S. soldier walks past damaged vehicles at the site of a bomb attack in Kabul March 13, 2008.
Reuters