Thirty-one militants, many of them believed to have been Al-Qaeda fighters, have been killed in airstrikes in south-eastern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. The strikes were carried out in Ghazni province late Wednesday, where the defence ministry said they targeted a "base" belonging to the militants.

"Qari Aref, one of the facilitators (for Al-Qaeda) was transferring these 31 terrorists, including nine suicide bombers, in several cars when targeted by airstrikes and eliminated," the ministry said.

It described the fighters as all belonging to the Middle Eastern jihadist group, although a spokesman for the Ghazni governor said fighters from the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network were also present. The defence ministry did not specify who carried out the airstrikes. Only Afghan and US forces in Afghanistan conduct airstrikes.