Taliban capture a remote district
A soldier in the US-led coalition and several militants have been killed in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said Friday, while the Taliban attacked and captured a remote district.
The soldier was killed "in action" Thursday near the western town of Farah, the coalition said in a statement. It gave no details of what happened or the nationality of the soldier.
There has been heavy fighting in recent days in Farah province, bordering Iran.
Six Afghan security guards were killed and two wounded in eastern Afghanistan Friday when a roadside bomb blew up the truck they were travelling in, police said.
It was not clear if the bomb at Qarghayi, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of Kabul, was newly planted or left over from the country's years of war, Laghman province police chief Abdul Karim Omaryar told AFP.
"Six people were killed and another two were wounded as a result of the bomb blast," he said.
The guards were working for a construction company on a project to build a new airport.
On Wednesday, international military planes pounded a militant compound in Farah and killed 30 Taliban fighters, including Pakistani nationals, who had gathered there, Afghan officials said.
Two Afghan soldiers and a policeman were also killed.
Separately, the coalition reported that it had killed "several militants" and detained 16 in a mission Thursday "to disrupt anti-government operations" in the central province of Ghazni.
Troops went to the district of Andar to look for a militant who allegedly helped foreign fighters operate in Afghanistan and was allegedly involved in planting bombs targeting troops, a statement said.
"During their search, coalition forces were threatened by several militants and responded with small-arms fire, killing the militants," it said.
The Andar governor, Abdul Rahimd Daisiwal, said a man and a boy were killed during the operation and 17 other people were arrested.
He was investigating if the detained and dead were linked to the Taliban or other militants.
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