KABUL – Afghan and foreign troops killed 30 Taliban fighters and wounded 17 others during a series of clashes in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb Tuesday killed the mayor of an eastern capital, officials said.
The joint forces continued to battle with the militants in Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province Tuesday, following overnight clashes when the militants were killed, said Uruzgan's police chief Juma Gul Himat.
Four policemen were wounded in the battle, he said.
Himat's account was impossible to verify independently. Afghan authorities are know to exaggerate their battlefield success.
Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of new U.S. forces will deploy to that region in an attempt to reverse recent Taliban gains following what appeared to be their initial defeat after the U.S. invasion in 2001.
In the eastern Khost province, meanwhile, a roadside bomb Tuesday killed the mayor of the provincial capital and seriously wounded his driver, said Tahir Khan Sabari, the deputy provincial governor.
The mayor of Khost city, Sahki Mirullah, was on his way home from his office when the explosion ripped through his vehicle, Sabari said.
Militants regularly use roadside bombs in their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. The number of such attacks rose by 30 percent last year, according to NATO figures.
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