U.S.-led troops kill 22 insurgents in Afghanistan

KABUL, June 7 (Reuters) U.S.-led coalition forces have killed 22 insurgents in a series of raids in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

The raids, conducted last weekend, come as the insurgency by Taliban rebels is at its worst since U.S.-backed troops overthrew the Islamist government in 2001.

Thirteen guerrillas were killed in a clash in the southern province of Uruzgan where two coalition soldiers received non-life threatening wounds, the U.S. military said in a statement yesterday.

In neighbouring Helmand, five militants were killed in an operation by coalition forces while four more insurgents were killed in Zabul and Paktika provinces, it said.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban about the raids.

Today in attacks in the east of the country, two U.S.-led coalition soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb blast, while a teenage Taliban suicide car bomber died ramming his taxi into a coalition convoy.

Some 400 people were killed last month alone, as the Taliban guerrillas have stepped up attacks in the south in an apparent attempt to weaken the resolve of NATO governments ahead of the handing of control to the group's peacekeeping troops from the U.S.

led coalition.

REUTERS CH KP1234