25 fighters killed, injured near Af-Pak border

KABUL: Twenty-five foreign fighters, including Arabs, Chechens and Pakistanis, were killed and wounded by Afghan security forces after they crossed the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan's volatile east overnight, a government official said on Tuesday.

Jamaluddin Badr, governor of eastern Nuristan province, saidan operation had been launched to guard against insurgents seeking to launch retaliatory attacks in Afghanistan after alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan on Monday.

"As a result of the operation, 25 foreign fighters were killed and wounded," Badr told Reuters. "We have launched an operation to control border infiltration."