| Troops backed by helicopter gunships killed five Taliban in a central Afghan province where seven policemen have been found dead in two days, an official said on Saturday. The Taliban targeted late on Friday, had been spotted laying mines on a road in the central province of Ghazni, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP. "The helicopters targeted them and killed them," he said. Separately, around 150 Afghan labourers, abducted in the western province of Farah a week ago, have been freed, with 118 released on Friday and 30 more on Saturday. Authorities accused the Taliban of the kidnapping, the largest in the post-Taliban conflict, which has also seen the emergence of criminal gangs who kidnap for ransom. |