Kandahar, Sunday 12 October 2008: An Afghan official says more than 100 militants have been killed in two separate battles in southern Afghanistan.

Daud Ahamdi, the spokesman for Helmand province’s governor, says 62 militants were killed early Sunday by Afghan soldiers and NATO airstrikes after they launched a surprise attack on the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

Ahmadi says another 40 militants were killed in three days of fighting in Helmand’s Nad Ali district, which has been under militant control until now. That battle ended Saturday.

Ahmadi says there were no casualties among Afghan or foreign troops.

Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, which has claimed more than 4,700 lives, most of them militants.