Twenty-five militants were killed by US-led forces in Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday, as the US military prepares to hand over security responsibilities in the violent south. Fifteen Taliban insurgents were killed during heavy bombing in three villages in Musa Qala of southern Helmand province on Tuesday night, Helmand's police chief Nabi Mullahkhail said. "The bombing lasted for several hours," he said. "As a result 15 Taliban were killed and 20 others wounded." Several people who said they were from Musa Qala phoned journalists to say that most of those killed in the attack were civilians. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said only one militant was killed in the raid and the rest were civilians.
Earlier, the coalition said in a statement it had killed seven militants on Tuesday in two separate incidents in the drug-producing region, where thousands of British soldiers are based as part of a NATO-led mission. Afghanistan's defence ministry said another two militants had been killed in combat in the south on Tuesday, and a third insurgent was killed in the southeast.