KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police have killed 25 Taliban fighters including an insurgent commander in a clash in the south of the country, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The militants were killed in Nadi Ali district of Helmandon Wednesday after they ambushed a police vehicle in theprovince, a main Taliban bastion and the biggest drug-producingregion of Afghanistan, world's top supplier of heroin.
"It is worth mentioning that Mullah Naqibullah who wasregarded as a prominent commander of the Taliban is amongstthose killed," the ministry said in a statement.
Naqibullah twice escaped from Afghan government prisons,the statement said. He boasted earlier this year he had managedto flee after paying a $15,000 (7,560 pounds) bribe, localmedia said.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, confirmed theclash, but denied Naqibullah's death, adding only one militantwas killed, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press reported.
The latest fighting in Helmand is part of a rising tide ofviolence in Afghanistan where more than 11,000 people have beenkilled in the last two years, the bloodiest period since theTaliban's 2001 ouster.
The al Qaeda-backed Taliban are spearheading an insurgencyagainst the pro-Western Afghan government and foreign troopsled by NATO and the U.S. military.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Jerry Norton)
