At least 37 people including seven Taliban militants were killed in violence across Afghanistan on Monday. Taliban fighters ambushed two convoys carrying members of the same family in southern Afghanistan killing 30 people, relatives and officials said. In a separate clash, Afghan and coalition soldiers killed seven militants in the southern province of Uruzgan, where a large-scale anti-Taliban offensive is underway, an Afghan official said.The first convoy attack, initially reported on Sunday, was on vehicles carrying a former district chief in Helmand province, leaving the ex-official and four of his bodyguards dead, said governor’s spokesman Ghulam Mohiudin. The second ambush occurred several hours later when about 40 of the slain official’s relatives went to collect his body, his brother Dad Mohammed Khan said on Monday. Khan, a parliamentarian and former Helmand intelligence chief, said that 25 people were killed, including the brother and nephew of the dead official, Jama Gul. Four others were wounded and 10 others remained missing. “We don’t know whether they are dead or alive,” Khan said.
The attacks occurred near each other on the highway between HelmandÂ’s Sangin and Grishk districts. Also on Sunday, US-led troops backed by Afghan forces raided a Taliban stronghold near Tirin Kot, UruzganÂ’s provincial capital, and killed seven militants, said local Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmatullah Roufi. After three hours of fighting, four wounded militants were arrested while others escaped into the mountains, Roufi said. Troops confiscated 11 AK-47 rifles, six rocket-propelled grenades and four machine guns.