Afghan police kill 25 Taliban
Afghan police have killed 25 Taliban fighters including an insurgent commander in a clash in the south of the country, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
General says Taliban sees Canada as vulnerableThe militants were killed in Nadi Ali district of Helmand on Wednesday after they ambushed a police vehicle in the province, a main Taliban bastion and the biggest drug-producing region of Afghanistan, world's top supplier of heroin.
"It is worth mentioning that Mullah Naqibullah who was regarded as a prominent commander of the Taliban is amongst those killed," the ministry said in a statement.
Naqibullah twice escaped from Afghan government prisons, the statement said. He boasted earlier this year he had managed to flee after paying a $15,000 (7,600 pound) bribe, local media said.
The Taliban could not be immediately contacted for comment.
The fighting is part of a rising tide of violence in Afghanistan where more than 11,000 people have been killed in the last two years, the bloodiest period since the Taliban's 2001 ouster.
The al Qaeda-backed Taliban are spearheading an insurgency against the pro-Western Afghan government and foreign troops led by NATO and the U.S. military.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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