40 militants killed in E Afghanistan

About 40 Taliban militants were killed and 14 injured when militants launched a cross-border attack against police checkposts in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province Saturday, a provincial government spokesman said. "Dozens of militants crossed the Afghan-Pakistan border and stormed Afghan border police checkposts in Nahmat Abad area of the Gomal district at about 2 a.m. local time Saturday and the police repelled the attack. As a result 40 militants were killed and 14 injured," spokesman Mukhlis Afghan told Xinhua. He said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF) or coalition's helicopters supported the police in the fight against militants. An Afghan Taliban key commander named Zanzer was among the killed, he added. The spokesman said that two policemen were slightly injured and no civilian was harmed in the clash in the province bordering Pakistan. The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than one decade, have yet to make comments. Violence has been on the rise since Taliban launched an annual spring offensive on May 3. Earlier in the day, the NATO-led ISAF confirmed losing two soldiers in an insurgent attack also in eastern Afghanistan earlier Saturday. The ISAF statement did not provide the nationalities of the victims and details on the attack under the ISAF policy. Troops mostly from the U.S. stationed in eastern Afghan provinces within the frame work of the ISAF and more than 260 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far in 2012.