KABUL, Dec 15, SPA -- A joint Afghan-NATO operation ina volatile region in the country's dangerous south haskilled 40 militants, including the Taliban's leader in thatregion, AP quoted a government official as saying Monday. The operation in the Nad Ali and Murja districts ofHelmand province began on Thursday and continued throughMonday, said Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand'sgovernor. Ahmadi said that 40 militants have died in the operation,though he said that government officials had recovered onlyseven bodies, which were given to tribal elders for burial. Ahmadi said the government knows another 33 fighters werekilled through intelligence sources. The figures couldn't be independently verified. Lt. Cmdr. James Gater, a spokesman for NATO's International SecurityAssistance Force, confirmed that a joint operation inHelmand is under way. He said he had no casualty figures hecould release. Among the dead was a Mullah Salim, a Taliban leader whowas the head of the militant's council in the twodistricts, Ahmadi said. The councils, also called shuras,are sometimes referred to as a shadow government structurethat operates separately from the Afghan government. Afghan officials admit they have little control in manyareas of northern Helmand, a poppy-growing region that isheavily infiltrated by Taliban fighters. Violence has spiked across Afghanistan the last two years. More than 6,000 people have died in insurgency-relatedviolence in 2008, according to an Associated Press count offigures based on Afghan and Western officials.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/616483