70 Taliban killed in offensive

Dozens of Afghan soldiers supported by Nato-led military forces launched the hunt last Saturday in Nari Saraj district of insurgency-hit southern Helmand province, the statement said.

Up to 70 rebels including five militant commanders were killed and more than 30 others were injured, it said.

Taliban militants "are now cleared" from the area, the statement said. It did not say when the district was overrun by the rebels.

Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters in Kabul was not immediately able to confirm the statement.

Helmand is one of the biggest hotspots for the ultra-Islamic Taliban movement, which was ousted from government by US-led forces in late 2001 after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

The rebels have seized several districts where policing is thin over the past year but have in most cases been driven out within days or weeks, often with heavy militant casualties.