By DPA
Kabul : Sixty suspected Taliban fighters drowned after they broke a siege and tried to cross a river in southern Afghanistan, while five family members of a police officer were killed by insurgents in an attack in the same region, officials said Saturday.
The militants drowned in the Kajaki district of southern Helmand province on Friday after joint Afghan and coalition forces surrounded a large group of insurgents in the Kajaki and Sangin districts, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
"Some 60 of them (Taliban) wanted to cross the Helmand River by ship and flee from the area. The ship sank and all the militants on board were killed," the statement said.
However, Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousef Ahmadi dismissed the report.
"It is a complete lie, Taliban usually cross that river, but no one has died," he said.
In another incident, Taliban militants attacked a police officer's house in southern Ghazni province on Friday night, killing five members of his family, Mehrajuddin Patan, provincial governor told DPA.
"Taliban militants killed two sons, two nephews and wife of Bashi Habibullah, commander of the Quick Reaction force of the province," Patan said.
He said that the commander was not at his home at the time of attack, "but other police forces reached the area and fought the Taliban attackers, killing ten of them."
Violence has been on the rise in Afghanistan for the past several weeks. The Taliban-led attacks and retaliations have left more than 1,900 people dead, mostly insurgents, so far this year.