At least 30 suspected Taliban militants have been killed during an ongoing operation by Afghan and US-led forces in southern Afghanistan a week before parliamentary elections. "During an operation in Grishk district of Helmand on Friday, Afghan and coalition forces killed 30 enemies and captured... 60 others," defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters on Saturday.Azimi said a large number of weapons and ammunition were also seized from the captured fighters during the operation in the southwest province of Helmand. Azimi said the operation involving Afghan and US-led forces was ongoing in the restive province where militants from the ousted Taliban regime regularly attack foreign and Afghan troops.
Two suspected suicide bombers were killed Wednesday as their explosives-packed car blew up in Grishk. The Taliban, who were driven from power by US-led forces in late 2001, have vowed to disrupt the country's first parliamentary polls for three decades on September 18. Taliban rebels and other Islamic militants have stepped up attacks on Afghan and foreign troops, tribal elders, mullahs and candidates in a bid to disrupt the US-backed vote.
A parliamentary candidate narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in which one of his bodyguards and an attacker were also killed in western Afghanistan, an official said Saturday. Ghulam Nabi Balouch escaped unharmed when unknown gunmen opened fire on his campaigning vehicle just outside Herat city on Friday, the official said. "Mr. Balouch survived, but one of his bodyguards was killed in the firing," Noor Ahmad Alizai, district chief of Kohsan district where the attack occurred told AFP. He said one of the attackers was killed and another captured.
Investigations were underway to find out who was responsible for the incident, which followed an attack on a female candidate in eastern Afghanistan late Wednesday. Six candidates have so far died in the political violence since early July when some 5,800 Afghan men and women signed up to run in the country's first parliamentary polls in more than 30 years. More than 1,100 people have been killed this year in attacks blamed on the hardline rebels, including around 50 US soldiers.