Afghan and US troops backed by warplanes blasted Taliban hideouts for a second day on Wednesday, killing scores of militants in one of the bloodiest setbacks for the guerrillas since their 2001 overthrow, officials said.

General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kandahar province who sent 400 troops in pursuit of militants who took over Mian Nishin district last week and executed its police chief, said 76 guerrillas had been killed since Tuesday.

"Their bodies and their weapons are scattered all over Mian Nishin," he said.

Two Afghan soldiers died and six US soldiers were wounded in the operation where Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces meet, which was aimed at checking a surge in violence ahead of Sept. 18 parliamentary elections, Afghan and US officials said.

US A-10 "Tankbuster" aircraft, British Harrier jets and US Apache attack helicopters took part in the offensive.

"This is the heaviest bombing and fighting I have seen since the fall of the Taliban," Kandahar's deputy police chief General Salim Khan said.

He said 30 guerrillas were captured.

Hundreds of people have died in a surge in militant violence in recent months, raising concerns about the elections, the next big step in Afghanistan's difficult path to stability.

A US military spokesman said at least 40-50 Taliban had died in the operation aimed at destroying guerrilla hideouts.

Afghan and US forces have reported killing over 100 insurgents in this southwestern region in the past week.

The US spokesman said two US Chinook helicopters were damaged by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire on Tuesday. One had to make an emergency landing, but there were no casualties.

The US military also said a US Air Force pilot was killed on Wednesday when his U-2 spyplane crashed after a reconnaissance mission over Afghanistan. A military spokesman refused to say where the plane, based in the United Arab Emirates, had crashed.

A Taliban spokesman said seven fighters had died, including a senior commander, Mullah Mohammad Easa, but none were captured.

Khan said bodies of two more Taliban commanders were found.

He said guerrillas fled through mountains into Zabul as jets and helicopters pounded their positions for a second day.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, government forces said they killed a Taliban-linked commander, Saaduddin Yaqoubzada, and a number of his men in fighting in the western province of Farah.

Yaqoubzada had earlier told Reuters six children, five women and four of his fighters had been killed in the clashes.

District officials said one security force member had died.

The guerrillas who seized Mian Nishin, a district capital about 250 miles southwest of Kabul, said they killed eight of 31 captives they held there, including its police chief, embarrassing the provincial government.

Government forces retook the town on Tuesday, but Khan said the remaining 23 captives the guerrillas said they had freed were missing, among them the district chief.

US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, attacks on the United States.

Three and a half years on, 20,000 mostly American troops are pursuing the militants along with Afghan forces but have been unable so far to subdue the insurgency, or to catch bin Laden.

Afghan and US officials complain guerrillas have found sanctuary in Pakistan, despite its being a US ally.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday to assure him of his support.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies June 23, 2005)