More than 50 Taliban militiamen were killed in a US-led air strike on a mosque in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand today, a provincial official said.
Several "Taliban leaders" were among those killed in the pre-dawn attack in the Kajaki district, the deputy provincial governor Amir Mohammad Akhundzada said.
"The Taliban were meeting in a mosque when the bombardment took place," the official said.
In recent weeks, southern Afghanistan has been hit by some of the deadliest fighting since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in late 2005.
Before today's airstrike, as many as 372 people have been reported killed in violence since May 17th, according to coalition and Afghan figures.
Yesterday, authorities found the decapitated bodies of three police dumped in a field in Helmand, two days after they disappeared. Officials blamed Taliban militants for the killings.
Agencies