A roadside bomb attack on an Afghan military convoy in eastern Afghanistan left seven soldiers dead yesterday, a day after militants killed four police officers in an ambush in the west, officials said.
The soldiers were part of a 10-vehicle convoy traveling in the Wazekha area of Paktika Province, near the border with Pakistan, when a remote-controlled bomb exploded under one of their vehicles, said General Murad Ali, the Afghan National Army's deputy commander for the southern regions.
The blast left seven soldiers dead and one wounded, Ali said.
The explosion occurred a day after a police vehicle was ambushed in Guzara district in Herat Province, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.
Four officers were killed and two others wounded, Nekzad said.
The attacks came after Afghan and international forces clashed with Taliban insurgents in two separate gun battles in the south and west on Monday, leaving 13 suspected militants dead and four other people wounded.
Afghan and US-led coalition forces launched an overnight operation late on Monday in Bakwa District in western Farah Province, killing two suspected militants and wounding two, said a spokesman for provincial police chief, Baryalai Khan.
Two police officers were wounded, and eight suspected militants arrested.
In the volatile southern province of Zabul, Afghan army and NATO troops surrounded Taliban militants on Monday evening and told them to surrender, regional Afghan army commander General Rahmetullah Raufi said.
The Taliban opened fire, and the ensuing battle left 11 Taliban dead, Raufi said.
He added that there were no casualties among Afghan or NATO troops.
Meanwhile, in the relatively calm north, a bomb exploded outside the Sari Pul provincial governor's home on Tuesday morning, but no one was injured, Governor Eqbal Munib said.
He said it was the third bomb targeting him in the past year.
Taliban-led militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, but NATO forces claim to have blunted a vaunted rebel "spring offensive" with a series of military operations aimed at consolidating the shaky grip of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.
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