Coalition warplanes bombed rebel compounds in 14 hours of fighting that left 25 rebels dead in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan and US-led forces said on Monday. The battle raged on Sunday near the town of Sangin in the southern province of Helmand, near where the Taliban's top commander Mullah Dadullah was found dead 10 days ago.

It comes amid a spike in violence linked to the Taliban insurgency, with two suicide blasts killing nearly 20 people at the weekend, including three German soldiers, and strikes in the east said to have killed more than 100 rebel fighters. There were "several confirmed enemy deaths" in Sangin, the US-led coalition said in a statement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007