Nine militants killed in Afghanistan blast, airstrike

Nine militants were killed and three wounded in separate incidents in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman Saturday, authorities said.

In one incident, seven militants were killed when a NATO drone fired a missile on a compound in Alishing district at around midday, Xinhua reported.

The killed militants were holding a meeting and tried to launch attacks on Afghan Local Police (ALP) security checkpoints before coming under attack, the provincial government said in a statement.

Four local Taliban leaders, including the more prominent Nasrat Usmani, were among the dead.

Earlier Saturday, two Taliban militants were killed and three wounded when a bomb they were planting along a road went off prematurely in the neighbouring Alingar district, according to the statement. The Taliban have intensified attacks over the past couple of months as the NATO and US forces are withdrawing from the country. The war-torn country is due to take over the responsibility for its own security from NATO-led troops by the end of this year.

More than 44,000 NATO-led coalition troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are stationed in Afghanistan. Some 30,700 of them are Americans and the US plans to trim its forces to less than 10,000 next year.