KABUL - A provincial police official in eastern Afghanistan says airstrikes have killed nearly 70 Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it could not confirm the high number of casualties, and it was impossible to check the claim independently because of the remote location of the battle site.
The Paktia provincial police chief (Esmatullah Alizai) says insurgents attacked police Saturday night in the Pathan district and were then targeted by helicopter airstrikes.
He said the bodies of 69 dead militants were left in the area, including four found travelling in two cars full of explosives and ammunition.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said two vehicles, two horses and a camel carrying weapons for fighters were also targeted in the battle.
ISAF confirmed that airstrikes targeted and killed three Taliban militants planting mines near Gardez, the main city in Paktia province, but said it had no information on the other airstrikes said to have killed 69 fighters.
More than 6,000 people have died in 2007 in insurgency-related violence, a record number, according to figures from Afghan and Western officials. Most of those killed were militants.
