US air raids kill up to 20 Taliban in Afghanistan

The rebels were killed when US-led troops came under small arms and rocket fire from militants and called in aircraft and attack helicopters in the province of Helmand, the military said in a statement.

"US aircraft and attack helicopters engaged the enemy. Initial battle-damage assessments indicate 15 to 20 enemies died," it added

A vehicle belonging to the attackers was also damaged in the attack, the statement said.

The statement said no US-led coalition soldiers were injured in the fighting in Grishk, a district in insurgency-wracked Helmand province, which has been hit by a renewed surge of violence by militants in recent months.

In southeastern Afghanistan, a suspected roadside bomb tore through a UN car carrying Afghan electoral workers, damaging the vehicle but causing no casualties, police said Sunday.

None of the five passengers on board the UN-marked vehicle were wounded when the bomb was detonated by a remote control device in Ali Shir area of Khost province, Mohammad Ayoob, police commander of the province said.

A day earlier suspected Taliban militants ambushed and killed a judge and two other officials in an ambush as they returned home from a dinner in the Nad Ali district to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand.