US-led coalition and Afghan troops have killed nine militants in overnight clashes in southern and central Afghanistan, the US military says. Violence has surged in Afghanistan with some 3,800 people, a third of them civilians, killed by the end of July this year.
In the latest fighting, US-led coalition troops killed four militants including two al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in Ghazni province on Friday, about 200 km miles southwest of Kabul. Two other suspects were detained. "The al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders were known weapons and foreign fighter facilitators," the US military said.
Five Taliban insurgents killed in an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, the silitary said in another statement.
The escalating violence has prompted some in the Afghan government and its allies to consider talks with the Taliban insurgents to end the war.