NATO reported Thursday killing a senior Taleban commander, while an airstrike left at least 10 insurgents dead and four civilians wounded. The military alliance said Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent leader in the southern province of Helmand, was killed Saturday in Naw Zad district. NATO accused Akhund of supplying weapons and roadside bombs that have killed Afghan and foreign forces in the area – a hub of the insurgency that is wracking Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defense ministry spokesman, said “tens of enemy” were killed during a joint NATO-Afghan army operation in the western province of Herat. NATO confirmed it launched an “effective” airstrike against insurgents. It provided no other details. There were varying accounts of the death toll. Humayun Azizi, head of the provincial council, said the raid targeted a militant cell in the Zerko area of Shindand district and 10 to 12 militants were killed in the airstrikes. Four wounded civilians – two children, a man and a woman – were brought to Herat hospital for treatment, he said. Abdul Shukur, the Shindand police chief, said the militants were suspected in kidnappings and were holding at least 15 people hostage. It was not clear if any of those allegedly held were killed during the raid. Pak army drives militants off Pakistani security forces backed by gunship helicopters cleared two northwestern towns of Taleban militants after 15 soldiers were killed in an ambush last weekend, the military said on Thursday. The action launched late on Wednesday cleared militant nests and secured an irrigation dam and fort north of Hangu, 40 km west of the garrison town of Kohat.
