Air raid kills 22 Taliban, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan

Air support was called in after a group of Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives fired rockets and heavy machine-guns on a base used by US-led troops and their Afghan allies in Shkin, near the Pakistan border, on Saturday, said Mohammad Ali Jalali.

Jalali told Reuters that he had heard unconfirmed reports that two US soldiers may also have died, but the US military in Afghanistan was not immediately available for comment.

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"The 22 bodies for sure were Taliban and al-Qaeda who got killed in the bombing," Jalali said.

The clash was separate from fighting in the Gomal district of Paktika on Friday in which 20 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, including Arabs and Chechens, died, according to Paktika police chief Dawlat Khan.

More than 350 people, including civilians, foreign and government soldiers, aid workers and many rebels have been killed since August across Afghanistan.

The south and southeast have been worst affected by a wave of attacks blamed on remnants of the hardline Islamic Taliban regime which has declared a Jihad, or holy war, against foreign troops in Afghanistan and the US-backed government in Kabul.