Saturday’s fighting lasted 12 hours and took place in the Dishu district, said provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi.

NATO and Afghan troops began pushing into the insurgency’s stronghold in the south in July.

Also on Sunday, militants attacked a convoy carrying supplies for the police, Education Ministry, and the UN’s World Food Program in western Nimroz province, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Jabar Pardeli. Six militants were killed and one policeman was wounded in the gunbattle, which lasted for more than two hours.

In a separate incident, NATO said that an airstrike on Thursday killed a Taleban leader and another militant in southern Zabul province as he was showing his fighters a new anti-aircraft heavy machine gun mounted on the back of his vehicle.