March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

KANDAHAR, March 24: Taliban fighters attacked police posts in southern and south-eastern Afghanistan overnight, sparking battles that left 16 rebels and five policemen dead, police said on Saturday.

The attacks came late on Friday, the day a commander announced that Taliban fighters had ambushed a convoy ferrying supplies to foreign troops, killing at least 14 guards and drivers in one of the biggest incidents of its kind.

Insurgents stormed a police post near the Uruzgan capital Tirin Kot, touching off a battle that lasted hours, provincial police chief General Mohammad Qasim said.

“Five Taliban and two police were killed and another 10 Taliban and four police were wounded,” he said.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the movement was responsible.

In a separate incident, the Islamist militants attacked a police post on the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Qalat, capital of Zabul province, police detection commander Mohammad Asif said.

“Two Taliban were killed and six wounded. Luckily there were no casualties to police forces.” In a similar attack in south-eastern Khost province, one policeman and five militants were killed in a four-hour battle in Gurbuz district on the border with Pakistan late on Friday, police commander Basheer Ahmad Kochi said.

In neighbouring Paktika province, Islamist fighters attacked a border police convoy with a roadside bomb, killing two policemen and wounding another five, provincial governor Mohammad Akram Khepelwak said.

“Following the blast, police launched an operation in the area they clashed with the enemy and killed four enemy elements,” Khepelwak said.

Taliban militants have stepped up their attacks in the past weeks although military officials reject the rebels’ talk of a “spring offensive” as propaganda.

The ambush on the supply convoy on Friday was the biggest of such attacks, which occur regularly but usually result in few or no deaths or trucks being set alight.

Police said on Saturday that 10 private Afghan security guards and four drivers were killed. The commander of the pro-government militia that had been guarding the convoy said that on Friday 15 guards and two drivers were killed.

Six trucks were burned to the ground and one taken by the militants.

Afghan security forces have also stepped up their action against the militants. They said they killed 69 in Helmand province on Thursday in their first operation without foreign forces.—AFP