By DPA
Kabul : Afghan and NATO forces killed at least 50 suspected Taliban fighters in a clash while a suicide bomber in the same region killed three civilians, officials said Monday.
The latest bloodshed came a day after US-led coalition forces claimed their forces along with Afghan soldiers killed around 80 insurgents in the most volatile province of Helmand.
The 50 Taliban casualties were inflicted during a military operation Sunday in Bloochi and Khorma villages in Trinkot, the capital city for Urezgan province, the defence ministry said in a statement.
It said that 13 other armed Taliban members were arrested in the operation.
Juma Gul Emat, provincial police chief for Urezgan, said 30 dead bodies of the militants were recovered in compounds bombed by NATO aircraft.
Emat said that more than 50 militants were killed in the operation but Taliban fighters took away the bodies of their comrades as they were fleeing the area.
He said that there were no casualties on the side of NATO forces, but an Afghan army soldier and a policeman were wounded.
In a separate incident, a suicide attack Monday against a police patrol in southern Afghanistan killed three civilians and wounded five people, including a policeman, a provincial police chief said.
A bomber who had strapped explosives around his body detonated himself near a police vehicle in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province, killing himself and three passers-by, the local police chief said.
The attack that took place in the main market of the city also wounded four civilians and one policeman.
The authorities held the Taliban, who have waged a bloody insurgency since the ouster of their government in late 2001, responsible for the attack.
More than 120 suicide attacks have been carried out in Afghanistan since the spring, making 2007 the most violent year since the US-backed Afghan government was formed six years ago.