KABUL, August 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Afghan troops backed by U.S.-led forces killed up to 50 suspected Taliban fighters and arrested 70 Monday, August 25, in ground and air raids across violence-wracked southeastern Afghanistan, officials said a day after at least 3 Taliban fighters and five government soldiers were killed in an ambush in the same area.

"In this operation 40 to 50 Taliban were killed and their bodies are still laying on the ground," a spokesman for the Zabul provincial government Ahmadullah Watan Dost told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by satellite telephone.

Some 1,000 Afghan soldiers supported by dozens of U.S.-led coalition troops were on the first day of an operation in Zabul's Daychopan district, 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of Kabul.

The operation was executed against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda bases in Daychopan's Dozi mountains, Watan Dost said.

The bases were "smashed to dust" by coalition bombing, he said, adding that there were no reported Afghan or coalition casualties.

"In this operation coalition forces helped up with their close air support and they bombed the Taliban bases and smashed them to dust," he said.

Five suspected Taliban were also arrested.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan were not immediately available for comment. It was impossible to independently verify details in the remote area.

The operation was launched after at least 14 people were killed in fighting over the weekend in Zabul and Uruzgan provinces where local officials said up to 300 Taliban were regrouping in the mountains.

Meanwhile in neighboring Paktika province, east of Zabul, hundreds of Afghan National Army troops backed by coalition forces arrested more than 70 suspected militants during operations near the Pakistan border where 33 people were killed in clashes a week ago.

"The Taliban don't have the power to fight in a front but can carry out some guerrilla attacks," said Paktika deputy security commander Shawali Sarhowzawall.

"That is why coalition forces in cooperation with the Afghan army launched a operation with close air support in three border districts of Urgon, Ziruk and Gayan in Paktika province," he said.

"The operation is still going on and they have arrested more than 70 suspected Taliban."

One U.S. soldier died after a clash in Paktika province on Wednesday, August 20, bringing to 31 the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan since the October 2001 start of the U.S.-led assault on the country.

Afghanistan is in the grip of a wave of violence from suspected resurgent Taliban fighters, who are believed to be regrouping in neighboring Pakistan's remote border tribal regions.

A local official, meanwhile, said on Sunday that at least three suspected Taliban fighters and five government soldiers were killed in an ambush in southeast Afghanistan.

The soldiers were ambushed Saturday, August 23, in Zabul province's Shah Joy district, 290 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of Kabul, provincial governor Hafizullah Hashim said.

"Five government soldiers were killed while they were on their way to Shah Joy district as part of a 1,000-man cleanup force on Saturday," he told AFP.

Zabul and neighboring Kandahar province sent the troops to the district following reports that Taliban militants were regrouping, said Hashim, who last week took over as governor during a reshuffle to help improve security and administration in the provinces.

"We had reports that the Taliban are regrouping around Shah Joy so we prepared a 1,000-member force to go to the area and do a cleanup operation," Hashim said.

U.S.-led coalition troops were supporting the operation Sunday, he said.

In neighboring Uruzgan, four suspected Taliban and two Afghan soldiers were killed Friday, August 22, in fighting with up to 300 militants, according to local officials.

Two suspected Taliban were arrested during the Zabul fighting, which lasted one and a half hours. Hashim said the area was quiet Sunday as the militants had escaped to the mountains.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Monday that violence had increased across southeast Afghanistan.

"There has been an increase in violence in some localized areas but it doesn't change our approach to combat operations," U.S. Colonel Rodney Davis said Monday at the U.S.-led coalition's Bagram Air Base headquarters.

Davis said attacks and violent incidents were concentrated in the southern and eastern areas bordering Pakistan.

"What we have seen is not throughout the country; it has been localized in the south and east portions of the country," he said.

Earlier this month around 100 people died in southeast Afghanistan in attacks, clashes with militants and fighting between rival militias over a one-week period.