Sixty Taliban fighters were killed in air strikes on two Taliban bases in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, provincial police said today.
The joint operation involving foreign and Afghan security forces took place in the Zharai district of Kandahar, a police chief said.
Elsewhere, Mullah Dadullah, the feared Taliban commander killed at the weekend in battle with US-led forces in Afghanistan, has been replaced by his younger brother, a Taliban spokesman said.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar appointed Mullah Bakht Mohammad to take the place of the insurgents' top operational commander in the south, a Taliban spokesman said.
The death of Dadullah was seen as the biggest blow to the Taliban since the start of the insurgency. He was seen as the main architect of suicide bombings, kidnappings of foreigners and Afghans, beheadings and a rise of violence in southern Afghanistan,
Afghan authorities said yesterday they had buried Dadullah in an undisclosed location in the southern province of Kandahar but that his relatives could rebury the body if they wished.