Clashes and airstrike kill 7 in southern Afghanistan

Kandahar: Seven Taliban members and a police officer were killed during clashes and an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Wednesday.

A police patrol in the Marja distict of southern Helmand was ambushed by Taliban militants on Tuesday night. Clashes that followed left four militants and a police officer
dead, Helmand's police chief said.

The militants' bodies and their weapons were recovered, he added.

Two other officers were wounded and a police vehicle was damaged.

Two motorbikes carrying Taliban militants through Zabul province were struck by an airstrike which killed three militants and wounded two. A woman and a child traveling nearby were also wounded.