U.S.-led troops kill 10 Taliban in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed at least 10 Taliban fighters on Tuesday in an attack on a compound in the southern province of Helmand after a tip-off that a junior commander was hiding there.

In the western province of Farah, NATO and Afghan forces raided a mosque and captured 22 Taliban they said were being trained for suicide and other attacks, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told Reuters.

During the Helmand attack, two Taliban fighters were also captured by coalition troops, who came under fire from small arms, mortars and rocket propelled grenades, according to a coalition statement.

Western and Afghan forces have opened a campaign, code named Operation Achilles, to seize the initiative before the Islamist guerrilla's anticipated spring offensive gets fully underway.

The junior commander they cornered was believed to have had direct ties to Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's commander of military operations in the south, but the statement did not say whether he had been killed or captured.

The coalition troops also destroyed a small-weapons dump at the compound in the Sangin Valley.

The troops came under fire from fighters hiding in irrigation trenches as they tried to withdraw. They killed several of their attackers, but there were no casualties on the Afghan and coalition side.

Aside from being a Taliban stronghold, Helmand is a major drug producing region of Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of heroin.

Both the Taliban and NATO troops under U.S. command regard the coming months as a crucial period in the six-year insurgency.

Almost 4,000 people were killed in 2006, the bloodiest year since U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban militia from power.