Up to 69 Taliban killed by Afghan forces

Afghan forces launched what appeared to be their biggest independent operation ever against the Taliban, killing as many as 69 militants in fighting in the south that also left seven police dead, officials said Friday.

Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of trucks heading to a NATO base, killing 13 Afghans, an official said.

The Afghan army and police carried out a joint operation in the Gereshk district of Helmand province Thursday morning, but NATO-led troops were not involved in the operations, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

Azimi on Friday said 49 Taliban bodies had been found in total, up from a death toll he gave on Thursday of 28. Azimi estimated the overall militant death toll at 69, saying the Taliban had buried 10 bodies and taken 10 bodies from the battlefield. Seven police were killed.

"They showed the capacity and capability of Afghanistan's National Army, without the help of foreign troops," Azimi said.

Lt. Col. Angela Billings, a spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, confirmed that ISAF troops did not participate in the operation, which was part of a major push against a rising threat from the Taliban inspired insurgency in the country's south.

"There's more and more instances where we're stepping back further and further as we continue with the training of the army and police," said Billings.

About 4,500 NATO and 1,000 Afghan forces are in and around Helmand province as part of Operation Achilles, launched earlier this month. Taliban militants and foreign fighters the last several months have streamed into Helmand province, the world's leading opium-producing region, according to U.S. and NATO officials.

Operation Achilles has seen heavy fighting between British forces stationed in Helmand province and Taliban militants, but neither NATO or Afghan officials have reported any large-scale casualties among Taliban fighters during the operation.

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked over the last year, with Taliban militants setting off a record number of roadside and suicide attacks. U.S. and NATO officials have said they expect violence to again increase this spring and summer.

In Uruzgan province, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of six trucks delivering goods to a NATO base in a remote and mountainous region, killing 12 private security guards and a driver, said Shafiq Khan, the chief of the private security company. Four of the trucks were destroyed, he said.

In eastern Nangarhar province, meanwhile, a suicide bomber targeted a U.S.-led coalition convoy on Friday, wounding a child collecting wood nearby, officials said. There were no coalition casualties, said Maj. William Mitchell, a coalition spokesman.

NATO also said a car just east of Kabul drove too close to a security cordon around a vehicle that had broken down late Thursday, prompting soldiers to fire at the vehicle, killing an Afghan child.