Two separate airstrikes in Afghanistan's south and east have killed more than 37 militants, including Chechen fighters, officials said on Tuesday. Authorities clashed with Taliban fighters and requested airstrikes from foreign troops in the southern Uruzgan province on Tuesday, which killed 15 militants, said provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat.
Two wounded Taliban fighters were wounded, Himat said. Authorities recovered the bodies of dead militants, he said. In the eastern Paktika province, meanwhile, another airstrike hit a group of foreign fighters and killed 12 militants, including nine Chechen fighters, said Ruhulla Samon, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
There were no casualties among Afghan forces in either clash. Afghan and Western officials have warned that higher number of foreign militants have joined the fight inside Afghanistan, which is seeing record levels of violence.
More than 4,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.