A significant number of Taliban extremist leaders were killed by NATO air forces on Saturday night in southern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement Sunday.

The brief statement did not mention a more detailed location of the incident, how many were killed and how senior the killed leaders were.

The statement said a NATO precision air strike "struck the scene of a gathering of enemy leaders in a remote area, far from any population center."

"Initial assessments indicate all of those who died were enemy insurgents," it added.

"Combined with the recent demise of Mullah Dadullah, this strike will, in the short term, push the enemy into confusion and disarray," said an ISAF spokesman John Thomas.

Dadullah, who was top Taliban commander, was killed by Afghan and foreign troops on May 12.

Source: Xinhua