[Quqnoos] Four Taliban insurgents were killed as NATO and Afghan troops launched a pre-polls offensive in the western Afghanistan on SaturdayAfghan and NATO-led forces have recaptured a village in the Guzara district of the western Herat province, in an effort to stablise the situation for the next Thursday's national elections, a police spokesman said. "A son of a local Taliban leader, Ghulam Yahya Akbari, has also been killed in the offensive," said a provincial police spokesman, Col Noor Khan Nikzad.
The operation was aimed to intensify security in the relatively restive Afghan district ahead of the 20 August presidential and provincial council elections. Taliban insurgents have reportedly fled Seyawishan village as the offensive begun to set back the militants. Local guerillas have blown up several bridges in the district in an attempt to prevent any military offensives, the local official further said.