Several Taliban fighters were killed in an air strike carried out by the U.S.-led coalition forces in the province of Helmand, located in the southern Afghanistan. U.S. military officials said that the coalition forces were trying to recapture one of the biggest Taliban strongholds, which was seized after the British troops left the elder people of the town to deal with the security.

The air raid had the goal of destroying a Taliban weapons supplier in Musa Qala district, where the rebels and the coalition forces were engaged in heavy fighting for the last three days.

"Coalition forces conducted a precision strike targeting a Taliban weapons smuggler known to equip extremist forces with various types of weapons and explosives including anti-aircraft weaponry. Reports also indicate the individual is linked with attacks on Coalition forces aircraft," the military official statement said.

Musa Qala is a very important target for both sides. It is the only significant town controlled by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said that the coalition forces had "completely captured" Musa Qalah and the fighting continues around the town. The Associated Press reported. Musa Qalah is situated in the opium poppy growing belt of northern Helmand province.

Musa Qala was taken by the Taliban fighters in February after the British troops pulled out and left the security of the town to the locals. It had become a base for "foreign terrorists," Azimi said. "Hundreds of terrorists had massed there."

Musa Qala and its surroundings have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year.
Several Taliban militants were killed on Sunday and 10 others were captured around Musa Qalah, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

"The Afghan Government has long said that it would retake Musa Qaleh from the scourge of the Taliban when the time is right," British Defense Minister Des Browne, who is in Afghanistan, said Sunday. "The time is now right."

On Saturday, the coalition forces killed 12 suspected militants and two children, who were caught in the fire exchange. The Taliban used the vehicle as a shield, the spokesman for the local Defense Ministry said.