KANDAHAR, May 15: Three Taliban commanders were among 11 insurgents killed in a battle near the southern Afghan town of Kandahar in which five policemen were also killed, Afghan authorities said on Monday. The Taliban have intensified their insurgency this year. Hundreds of people have been killed in bomb attacks, ambushes and clashes.

In separate incidents on Monday, a French soldier was killed in a blast while clearing mines in Kabul and two Canadian soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the southern province of Kandahar.

The Taliban commanders were killed on Sunday in fighting that erupted after police got word Taliban were hiding in Panjwai district, 30 km west of Kandahar town, and went to search for them. The battle lasted several hours.

“Unfortunately, we lost five of our men but we destroyed a dangerous group of Taliban. It’s a big victory for our police,” said Mohammad Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Seven policemen were wounded.

Kandahar is the main town in the Afghan south and was a bastion of Taliban support during their rule.

US and other foreign forces, including Canadian and British contingents, operate out of a sprawling base at the town’s airport. The base occasionally comes under rocket attack but no casualties have been caused in several blasts in recent months.

Ahmadi said among the Taliban militants killed was a provincial-level commander, Mullah Abdul Baqi, and a district-level commander, Mullah Abdul Manan.

Manan was responsible for a spate of attacks, including suicide bomb blasts, rocket attacks and the burning of several schools in the south of the province, Ahmadi said.

The Ministry of Interior said a third commander, Fida Mohammad, was among the dead. The insurgents had been preparing an attack when police confronted them, it said.

Foreign forces were not involved in the clash.

The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 after refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept 11 attacks on US.

The French soldier was killed clearing mines near Kabul’s airport, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Nato-led peacekeeping force said.—Reuters