US says it killed 19 militants in Afghanistan

A series of operations by US forces in eastern Afghanistan targeted an al-Qaida leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants, the coalition said. Afghan police meanwhile said Saturday they had investigated unconfirmed reports that civilians may have been killed and found that only militants died. The operations took place Friday in Nangarhar and Khost provinces, volatile regions along the Pakistan border. In the deadliest operation, the coalition said it killed 10 militants during a strike against a bomb-making cell under the command of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a fierce militant leader believed to operate out of Pakistan. Wazir Pacha, the spokesman for Khost's provincial police chief, said a delegation of police had been sent to investigate whether civilians had been killed and had found no such evidence.