US-led coalition forces killed several militants in clashes in southern Afghanistan, the US military said today.
The latest clashes came in the Garmser district of Helmand province, where mostly British and US troops are battling to extend Afghan government authority to a string of towns along the Helmand River that cuts through the desert.
In a separate incident, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in the Sangin district, further north in Helmand province yesterday.
Afghanistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in the last two years since the Islamist Taliban relaunched their insurgency to oust the pro-Western Afghan government and eject more than 50,000 foreign troops from the country.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in that period.