Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the US-led coalition forces during an hours-long operation killed nearly three dozen Taliban fighters Saturday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province.

The combined forces were conducting a reconnaissance mission when Taliban fighters engaged the patrol with rocket and small-arms fire, the statement said, adding that ANSF and Coalition forces returned fire and easily out-maneuvered the militants.

The clash came as a sustained fighting between the combined forces and Taliban fighters Saturday entered into a second day near the Musa Qaleh Wadi region of Helmand, it said.

Saturday's actions "are part of a larger operation to disrupt terrorist activities in the Helmand Province," the statement added.

There were no reports of Afghan civilian casualties in the clash.

On Friday, over a dozen Taliban insurgents while attacking a patrol of the combined ANSF and Coalition forces were killed in the same region of northern Helmand.

Rising Taliban-related violence and conflicts have killed over 5,200 people in Afghanistan this year.

The Taliban, who was removed from power by the US invasion in late 2001, has waged a years-long war against the Afghan administration and the international troops currently being deployed in the war-torn country.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2007)