March 30, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1428

KANDAHAR, March 29: Security forces killed 13 Taliban in battles in southern Afghanistan while two police and a security guard died in rebel attacks, officials said on Thursday.

The new unrest came as a man claiming to be a Taliban commander in the southern province of Kandahar said he was holding three nurses, a doctor and their driver hostage and would release them for militants in prison.

More than 80 Taliban fighters attacked a compound in the southern province of Uruzgan on Thursday, sparking a pitched battle that lasted six hours, the US-led coalition said in a statement.

Eight Taliban and an Afghan security guard were killed, it said. Insurgents meanwhile stormed a police post north of Kandahar city late on Wednesday, provincial police chief Asmatullah Alizay said.

Two police were killed in the attack.

Taliban have abducted two other police as well, he said.In a separate incident in Kandahar, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said it had killed five militants west of the city in an overnight operation.—AFP