Around 20 'enemy fighters' killed in Afghanistan

Afghan and coalition soldiers killed nearly 20 "enemy fighters" in a seven-hour battle in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan and coalition soldiers killed nearly 20 "enemy fighters" in a seven-hour battle in southern Afghanistan that erupted after the troops came under attack, the US-led coalition said on Saturday.

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The attackers, who had opened fire with machine guns in the southern province of Kandahar on Friday, had tried to flee but were chased by the troops, it said in a statement.

"Nearly 20 enemy fighters were killed during a seven-hour firefight and there were no Afghan civilian injuries reported," it said.

Several more fighters were killed in the adjoining province of Uruzgan when a battle erupted after troops were shot at with multiple rockets.

The coalition announced separately it had detained 20 militants in an operation early Saturday against Al-Qaeda militants at three compounds in Ghazni province.

At one compound fighters had fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the coalition forces, who returned fire and killed the assailants, the statement said.

It cited "credible intelligence" as saying the compounds sheltered Al-Qaeda.

The coalition, which led the invasion that drove out the Taliban in late 2001, is focussed on counter-terrorism operations targeted mainly at Taliban fighters and their allies from the Al-Qaeda terror network.