The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kandahar

At least nine Taliban-linked militants were killed in clashes with Afghan and international forces in troubled southern Afghanistan, a police commander said Tuesday.

The fighting erupted in the Nawa district of Helmand province after dozens of rebels attacked Afghan security forces manning a checkpoint, provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad told AFP. Afghan reinforcements backed by NATO-led troops rushed to the scene and killed nine rebel attackers, Sherzad said.

"Nine Taliban were killed and their bodies were left in the area. We had no casualties," he added.

Helmand province, which borders Pakistan, sees much of the violence in the bloody insurgency being waged by remnants of the Taliban regime, which was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.