US-led forces kill 70 more Taliban rebels

US-led forces killed around 70 Taliban rebels during clashes in southern Afghanistan, the US military said yesterday, raising the number of insurgents killed to 100 over the past three days.

Last week the US-led coalition announced a major offensive, codenamed "Operation Mountain Thrust", to push deep into the Taliban's southern heartland.

A clash erupted on Friday after about 40 Taliban fighters attacked coalition forces in the Tarin Kot district of the southern province of Uruzgan.

In another incident, coalition and Afghan forces attacked "a large group of extremists" in the Zharie district of neighbouring Kandahar province, killing 25 rebels in a battle that lasted three hours, a US military statement said.

Four more rebels were killed in a firefight with a coalition patrol in Kandahar on Friday night, Major Quentin Innes, a coalition spokesman, said.

The US military said coalition troops had killed about 31 Taliban insurgents in the south on Wednesday and Thursday.