Eighteen people including two civilians were killed in violence across insurgency-hit Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday. Two civilians, including a woman, were killed when a bomb placed on Casualties: Three militants were killed in a joint riding, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement. In Khost province, near the Pakistan border, ISAF troops killed one militant and detained two others after they were spotted by an unmanned surveillance aircraft placing an improvised explosive device (IED), ISAF said in a separate statement. In Farah province, Afghan soldiers assisted by coalition troops killed two militants after coming under fire on a combat reconnaissance patrol in Khaki.
Separately, NATO-lef forces and Afghan troops killed three suspected militants during a raid in central Afghanistan, where insurgent attacks have spiked this year, officials said. At least two other suspected militants died in an airstrike in the south. The joint force was targeting insurgent commanders in a village in Logar province. The three suspected militants were killed in a gunfight following a call for them to surrender, a NATO statement said.