Kabul - Afghan border police killed some 20 suspected
Taliban militants after the rebels attacked an outpost in the eastern
province of Khost, while eight militants and one policeman were
killed in a separate clash in southern Afghanistan, officials said
Tuesday.
The clash in Khost, in which the coalition air support was
deployed, happened in the Babrak Tana area of Alisher district of the
province on early hours of Monday when a group of militants attacked
the border police checkpoint, Mohammad Ayoub Khan, the provincial
police chief, said.
He said that the provincial governor and police delegates visited
Babrak Tana, which is around 50 kilometers from provincial capital,
on Monday afternoon and confirmed the death toll.
He said they had information that the dead bodies had been taken
to the other side of border on Pakistani soil and were buried there.
The Taliban said in a statement on their website that their
militants attacked the border outpost and inflicted casualties on
Afghan police side.
But Khan said there were no Afghan police casualties.
The Taliban statement said they had destroyed the outpost building
in a one-hour firefight. It did not mention the casualties on
militants' side.
Meanwhile, Taliban militants attacked a police vehicle which was
carrying logistic supplies in Zharai district of southern Kandahar
province on Monday afternoon, killing a policeman and wounding
another, while a police car was also burned, said Esmatullah Alizai,
the provincial police chief.
He said police reinforcements fought back, killing eight Taliban
fighters.
Violence is on the rise in Afghanistan, particularly in the south,
after a reduction in violence during the winter. The violence so far
this year has left over 1,600 people dead, most of them insurgents.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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