Seven Taliban killed in firefight, blast injures three soldiers
Pakistan Times Monitoring Desk

KABUL (Afghanistan): Seven suspected Taliban fighters died in a battle with US-led forces, officials said Wednesday, while a bomb wounded three Afghan soldiers the day after the security chief of the ousted regime's leader was captured.

The seven were killed in a clash with Afghan forces in southeastern Khost province, who then requested support from US-led coalition soldiers late Monday, Major Mark McCann told reporters.

No coalition or Afghan forces were injured, McCann said.

On Tuesday two senior Taliban commanders were caught by Afghan forces in the main southern city of Kandahar, the fundamentalist Islamic regime's former stronghold and spiritual home.

Afghan officials said one of the two men had formerly been fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's security chief and had been in charge of the Taliban's operations in Kandahar province.

Three Soldiers Injured

In a separate development in the city Wednesday, three Afghan soldiers were slightly injured when a bomb exploded in a military base.

The device went off shortly before 9:00 am at the base used by Afghan forces, the city's police commander Khan Mohammad said.

"Three soldiers were slightly injured in the explosion," he said, adding that an investigation was underway to find out who was behind the attack.

The police chief said it was too early to determine the target of the bomb, but added that several militia commanders were at the site when it exploded.

An 18,000-strong US-led military force in Afghanistan continues to hunt for remnants of the Taliban and of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Kidnapped Turkish engineer found dead

Meanwhile, a Turkish engineer taken hostage in Afghanistan has been killed, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told foreign news agency on Wednesday.

The Turk was kidnapped along with his Afghan interpreter and driver on Tuesday evening in the eastern province of Kunar. Both the Afghans were released.●