The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kabul

Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 40 insurgents in a joint air and ground battle in southern Afghanistan, a security official said Sunday. Separately, two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition died after hitting a roadside bomb.

Troops seized dozens of weapons - including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns - after Saturday's battle in Dihrawud, a district in Uruzgan province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said many militants were killed, including a commander, but provided no figures.

An official at the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details about the battle, put the number of dead at more than 40 .

Also Saturday, U.S.-led coalition troops hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar province as they were conducting a security patrol with Afghan troops, the coalition said in a statement. Two soldiers died, it said, without releasing their nationalities.

Elsewhere in the south, a mine killed two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, a U.S. military statement said.

"Coalition forces, along with Afghan National Security Forces, were conducting a security patrol in the Zharmi District, when their vehicle struck a mine placed on a frequently traveled road," said the statement, issued late on Saturday.

Taliban insurgents planted hundreds of mines and roadside bombs in 2007, contributing to a record year of violence that killed more than 6,000 people, nearly 2,000 of them civilians.

More than 200 foreign troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2007 while nearly 30 troops from the U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed since so far this year.

Taliban rebels are mainly active in southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan that share long borders with neighboring Pakistan. Afghan officials have repeatedly claim that insurgents are trained, equipped, funded and have safe havens in other side of the border.

Afghan and NATO forces both say they need more troops to fight off a revived Taliban insurgency. The United States is pressing its NATO allies to come up with more troops and trainers for Afghan forces at a summit in early April.

AFP report adds: A bomb blew up a military vehicle in Afghanistan and killed two soldiers with the US-led coalition, officials said Saturday, also reporting a wave of violence that left eight other people dead.

The soldiers, whose nationalities were not released, were killed Friday when their vehicle was struck by a mine planted on a busy road in the southern province of Kandahar, the coalition said. The attack was similar to scores carried out by Taliban militants active in the area but there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The force includes about 18,500 US soldiers and about 1,500 of other nationalities.

More than 30 international soldiers -- in the coalition and a separate NATO-led force -- have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile incidents related to a deadly Taliban insurgency.

The Afghan interior ministry announced meanwhile that security forces had killed three Taliban "commanders" and two of their bodyguards in operations in the southern province of Uruzgan late last week.

It did not identify the "commanders", a label which could cover insurgents with just a handful of men operating under them. Satellite telephones and weapons were also seized, it said.