US-led forces kill nine militants in Afghanistan

Kabul: US-led coalition and Afghan troops killed nine militants in overnight clashes in southern and central Afghanistan, the US military said on Saturday.

In the latest fighting, US-led coalition troops killed four militants including two Al Qaida and Taliban commanders in Ghazni province on Friday, about 200 km (outhwest of Kabul. Two other suspects were detained.

"The Al Qaida and Taliban commanders were known weapons and foreign fighter facilitators," the US military said.

Five Taliban insurgents were killed in an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, the US military said in another statement.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan with some 3,800 people, a third of them civilians, killed by the end of July this year.