Kabul, Sep 3 (DPA) Four NATO soldiers and over 200 suspected Taliban militants were killed during a major operation by NATO forces in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, officials said Sunday.
The operation, codenamed "Medusa" and centred on the Panjwayi district of the province, is the bloodiest anti-militant offensive in Afghanistan since the hard-line Taliban regime was toppled by a US-led military campaign in late 2001.
"Reports indicate that more than 200 Taliban fighters have been killed since Operation Medusa began early Saturday morning," the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
"This figure was arrived at by reviewing information from ISAF surveillance and reconnaissance assets operating in Panjwayi and Zhari districts, as well as information reported by various Afghan officials and citizens living nearby," the statement said.
Four ISAF soldiers were killed during Sunday's operations and seven others were wounded, the statement said, without identifying the nationality of the soldiers.
An Afghan defence ministry spokesman had earlier said that three Canadian soldiers were killed and six wounded in the operation.
More than 80 suspected Taliban fighters were captured by the Afghan National Police and a further 180 insurgents were seen fleeing the district, the ISAF statement said.
"There are no reports of civilian casualties, despite the heavy weight of fire being used," it said.
An ISAF spokesman in the region, Major Quentin Innis, had earlier said that NATO-led forces used artillery and air support and had pounded Taliban positions in Panjwayi district.
Innis said that the operation, the biggest anti-Taliban drive since the ISAF took over command of Afghanistan's troubled southern provinces from US-led coalition forces at the end of July, was still ongoing.
The joint Afghan-NATO forces operation is aimed at driving Taliban fighters out of Panjwayi and allowing displaced residents to return to their homes.
Thousands of Panjwayi villagers have been forced to flee their homes since Taliban fighters in May began to flood into the area, prompting clashes with Afghan and foreign troops.
Until Saturday, a total of 22 British soldiers had lost their lives in the country, seven of them since the launch of a major offensive against Taliban militants last month.