Twelve dead in Afghan violence

Nine Taliban militants died and three policemen were wounded when insurgents attacked a police post in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Nine Taliban militants died and three policemen were wounded when insurgents attacked a police post in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

HT Image

Police arrested two of the militants after a gun battle in Afghanistan's restive southern Helmand province late Saturday but another two escaped, Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor, told AFP.

"Nine Taliban were killed and they left their bodies at the battlefield. Four Taliban and three policemen were wounded," he said.

Separately, US-led coalition forces said they killed three insurgents outside the capital Kabul on Saturday.

The Taliban, who were in power from 1996 to late 2001, have waged a bloody insurgency against Afghan and international forces under NATO and US command in Afghanistan.

The rising insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and has paralysed the internationally-backed post-Taliban reconstruction of Afghanistan.