Suspected Taliban rebels killed two policemen in Afghanistan while a bomb blast claimed the lives of two militia soldiers working with security forces, officials said yesterday.
About 60 suspected Taliban rebels armed with machine-guns and rockets raided the police post in southwestern Nimroz Province on Wednesday, killing at least one policeman and injuring four others, the provincial governor said.
Some Taliban fighters also appeared to have been killed in the nearly two-hour gunfight, judging by blood and ripped clothes and shoes left at the scene, Governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said.
A purported Taliban spokesman confirmed the clash, but said the guerrillas did not suffer any casualties.
"Yes, we carried out that attack, but we had no casualties. We believe four police were killed," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said by satellite phone from an unknown location.
Ahmadi said the Taliban were also behind two attacks in central Ghazni Province on Wednesday in which another policeman and two militia soldiers were killed.
The policeman was shot dead by two men on a motorbike, provincial Governor Haji Sher Alam said, adding that the two militiamen were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast, he said.
Attacks mostly blamed on or claimed by remnants of the ousted Taliban regime occur almost daily across Afghanistan despite an intensive hunt for the militants since their government was toppled four years ago in a US-led invasion.
Violence blamed on the Taliban and other militants killed more than 1,700 people last year. Nearly 100 more, most of them militants, have died since the beginning of this year.
At least six US soldiers helping to hunt down Taliban remnants have also been killed in action this year. Four US troops were killed on Monday when their vehicle struck a bomb in volatile Uruzgan Province.
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