KANDAHAR, Dec 18: Four policemen and three suspected Taliban fighters were killed in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, police and a provincial official said on Sunday. About a dozen suspected insurgents stormed a police checkpost on a main highway late on Saturday, sparking a fierce gun battle in which three policemen and an attacker were killed, Highway Police Commander Mohammad Nabi Allahyar said.

He blamed the attack in Zabul, on a highway that links Kandahar with Kabul, on remnants of the Taliban regime. Some of the 10 to 15 attackers were wounded but their comrades were able to evacuate them, he said.

Another policeman and two militants were killed in a clash after a suspected Taliban ambush in Uruzgan province the same night, provincial governor Jan Mohammad Khan said.—AFP