In Afghanistan, at least 20 militants were killed in an air strike in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province after coming under fire from the insurgents. A NATO statement issued on Friday said that when the air weapons team received small-arms and machine gun fire from a large group of insurgents, it returned fire with rockets and the aircraft’s cannon.Initial reporting say there were no civilian casualties. NATO-led forces have launched a series of operations in Kandahar province to clear it of militants. A separate air strike killed two militants, one of them allegedly a senior Taliban leader, in the neighbouring province of Zabul yesterday. There are more than 150,000 US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan supporting President Hamid Karzai's administration against the Taliban, whose nine-year insurgency is concentrated in the south.