Up to 40 people were killed in fresh militant violence in Afghanistan's restive south, but the threat of Taliban attacks did not deter men and women from voting in Saturday's historic election. The single largest clash reported on polling day was in Uruzgan province, where governor Jan Mohammad Khan said that 24 suspected Taliban guerrillas were killed, as well as one civilian, in an air strike by U.S.-led forces. But residents in the area countered that 14 civilians, 13 of them women or children, died in the bombing, according to accounts to Reuters and the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency. Khan said the gunmen attacked U.S. and Afghan troops in Char Cheno district at about 1.30 a.m. (2100 GMT on Friday), and sustained heavy losses when close air support was called in. Colonel Richard Pedersen, commander of U.S.-led forces in southern Afghanistan, said he was aware of the clash, but declined further comment. The bombing, and a series of attacks on the eve of and during the country's first direct presidential ballot, could not dampen the enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands of people who queued outside polling stations for hours to cast votes. --More 2235 Local Time 1935 GMT
