Security worker abducted in Afghanistan

Suspected Taliban rebels abducted a worker from a US private security firm in southern Afghanistan.

Suspected Taliban rebels kidnapped an Afghan security worker in southern Afghanistan, while two militants were killed in a separate incident, police said on Friday.

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The man working for USPI, a US private security firm, was abducted Thursday in the southern province of Ghazni which has seen frequent Taliban attacks, provincial police chief Tafsir Khan said.

During a hunt for the kidnappers police detained six men for suspected involvement in the kidnapping, Khan said, adding that there was no news on the fate of the security worker.

The Taliban have threatened to target Afghan nationals working for the foreign military or civilian companies.

Meanwhile, two suspected Taliban fighters were killed and four others were injured, also on Thursday, after they attacked a police building in neighboring Zabul province, police chief Noor Mohammad Paktin said.

"The Taliban left their dead fighters on the ground and made off after we resisted," he told the agency.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif claimed responsibility for the attack and for the kidnapping, repeating calls for Afghans to not work for "infidel foreigners."

Afghanistan in recent months has suffered the worst violence since a US-led attack ousted the Taliban government in December 2001 for failing to hand over Osama bin Laden.