Attacks reported in Afghanistan yesterday took to 15 the number of police killed in a weekend of violence, including in the country's west which has seen a surge in unrest.
Eight policemen were killed in a six-hour battle in the western province of Farah on Saturday when Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol, the provincial police chief said yesterday.
A US-led coalition statement said 17 rebels were killed in the fighting, but Sayed Agha Saqeb said only four of their bodies were recovered from the battlefield.
Another policeman was missing, Saqeb said.
"The fighting ceased when we sent reinforcements," he said.
The attack occurred near the centre of Bakwa district, which was overrun by Taliban late February. The militants were in control for less than a day before Afghan security forces drove them out.
The coalition said it assisted the police with close air support and sent forces to secure the district center.
Four police vehicles were burned by insurgents, it said.
Yesterday a suicide car bomb exploded near police returning from Bakwa, wounding one of the men, Saqeb said.
Intelligence services had been tipped off beforehand and security forces were on the lookout for a bomber.
On Saturday five policemen were killed when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle in Ghazni Province, another region plagued by insurgency in the country's south, a district official said.
Two policemen were also killed in the southern province of Helmand on Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up close to their convoy, police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
Afghan security forces are a main target for insurgents, and about 150 have been killed so far this year, an AFP tally based on reports showed.
Most of the violence has been in the south, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, but attacks in the previously quiet west have stepped up in recent months.
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