NATO and Afghan troops killed 10 Taliban rebels and captured two suspected militant leaders in a raid on an alleged suicide bomb cell in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said on Friday.
One NATO soldier was lightly wounded in the operation carried out early on Thursday in the troubled Sangin district of Helmand province, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
The identity of the suspected insurgent commanders captured in the raid was not revealed.
An ISAF statement said troops seized two suicide vests, several rocket propelled grenades and a cache of equipment and weapons "that were ready to be used in future attacks".
Warplanes and helicopters backed up the troops in the operation, it said, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
Most of the NATO troops stationed in Helmand are British.
Afghanistan suffered a wave of four suicide attacks and a bombing at the start of the week after a relative lull, leaving 22 people dead including four NATO soldiers.
This year has been the bloodiest since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 with more than a hundred suicide bombings killing 230 Afghans and 17 foreign troops, ISAF said.
{{/usCountry}}This year has been the bloodiest since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001 with more than a hundred suicide bombings killing 230 Afghans and 17 foreign troops, ISAF said.
{{/usCountry}}More than 3,700 people -- including a majority of insurgents as well as around 1,000 civilians plus Afghan soldiers and police -- have been killed this year, four times the toll for 2005, according to an official report.