Afghan official: 22 Taliban killed in south - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Afghan official: 22 Taliban killed in south

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — At least 22 Taliban militants, including three regional commanders, were killed overnight in fighting in southern Afghanistan, a provincial official said Friday.

A band of Taliban fighters attacked two police checkpoints in Nawzad district Thursday, taking control of the stations and forcing the officers to flee, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand province.

The police launched a counterattack with the help of an airstrike, killing 22 insurgents, Ahmadi said. Three Taliban chiefs in Nawzad and surrounding districts were among the dead, he said, adding that no Afghan forces died in the fighting.

The attack came on the same day that Taliban militants attacked a prison in the east and that a NATO service member was killed by a bomb blast in the south.

The militants did not manage to break into the prison they attacked Friday in eastern Laghman province, but a group of more than a dozen prisoners charged an interior gate, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Karim.

One prisoner managed to get away by jumping over the wall, while police shot another one dead as he attempted to flee, Karim said. Both of the men had been imprisoned for criminal offenses and were not known to have Taliban connections, he said.

Police captured one of the attackers and wounded some others, he said. No police or guards were injured.

Last summer, Taliban fighters attacked the prison in southern Kandahar province in a multi-pronged assault that included a suicide truck bomb, a suicide bomber on foot and gunmen freeing the prisoners. About 870 prisoners escaped, including roughly 400 jailed insurgents. The government has since worked to improve security at prisons across the country.

This week, President Barack Obama put his stamp on the bloody eight-year conflict by replacing the general in charge of the effort and installing a new ambassador. The Obama administration hopes the leadership shake-up — along with an additional 21,000 American troops deploying this summer — will help reverse the militants’ momentum.