Dozens of Taliban said killed in Afghan battles

KABUL, Oct 9 (Reuters) US led coalition and Afghan troops have killed 49 Taliban insurgents in two separate battles in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said today.

This year's fighting is the worst since since coalition forces ousted the hardline Taliban government in late 2001.

The latest battles were in Deh Rawud district of rugged Uruzgan province over the past two days, a ministry statement said.

A joint offensive by coalition and Afghan forces, backed by NATO air support, killed 30 guerrillas in one area of Deh Rawud, it said. Another 19 were killed in an operation by the Afghan army in another part of the district.

Only two Afghan soldiers were wounded, but the statement did not say if there were any casualties among foreign troops.

Foreign forces could not be contacted for immediate comment.

Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, rejected the ministry's statement and put Taliban losses at just five.

Speaking from an unknown location by satellite phone, Yousuf said the militants had killed 20 Afghan soldiers in the battles.

There has been a lull in heavy fighting in the Taliban's southern heartland since the start of the Muslim fasting month.

About 2,500 people, most of them militants, according to foreign commanders, have been killed in Taliban attacks and foreign military operations this year alone.

The deaths also include more than 140 foreign soldiers, scores of civilians, aid workers and Afghan troops and police.

Separately today, a roadside bomb killed an Afghan police officer, a district intelligence chief and the district administrator in eastern Nangarhar province, an interior ministry spokesman said.

REUTERS PDM RK1638