Nato strike kills several Pakistanis

KHOST (AFP) - Nato warplanes and Afghan forces killed 26 militants, while one Nato soldier died and three others were wounded in a separate attack, officials said Tuesday.

Several foreign militants were among the dead after the airstrike early Tuesday by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the eastern province of Paktia, near the border with Pakistan, officials said.

Insurgents opened fire on the headquarters of the province's Sayed Karam district but were driven away after a gunbattle which caused slight damage to the building, provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon said.

"NATO helicopters then bombed the militants and killed 14 militants on the spot. Our policemen arrested another four wounded, and one of the wounded also died in hospital," Samoon told AFP.

Many of those killed were Pakistanis, Samoon said, adding that the injured rebels were from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Meanwhile, 11 Taliban militants and three policemen were killed after an attack by rebels on a police post in southern Kandahar province Monday night, police said.

"We launched a counterattack today. Eleven Taliban have been killed so far and their bodies are on the ground," Juma Gul Hemat, the police chief of neighbouring Uruzgan province, told AFP.

He added that the fighting was ongoing.

Separately, a NATO soldier was killed and three others were wounded after a landmine struck their patrol in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday, the alliance force said.

It brings to 100 the number of foreign soldiers killed in the country this year, according to an AFP tally. The incident took place in Nangarhar province's khogyani district where over 200 villagers had protested the alleged killing of two civilians a day earlier, ISAF said.