KABUL, July 17: Taliban-led violence flared across southern Afghanistan on Monday with militants taking control of two southern towns while also killing a US-led coalition soldier and wounding 11 others in a fierce firefight, officials said.

A suicide bomber killed three Justice Ministry employees after blowing himself up inside their offices in Helmand, where three Afghan soldiers also lost their lives in a roadside bombing.

In eastern Afghanistan, US-led troops killed four suspected Al Qaida members, including Arab and Chechen fighters, after raiding their hideout. A militant tossed a grenade into a wedding party in the same area, killing one man and wounding 16 others.

Afghan officials said scores of Taliban forces overran Afghan policemen holed up in a compound in the Helmand town of Garmser, near the Pakistan border, on Sunday, forcing the security forces and a handful of government officials to flee, a local government official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Taliban forces were now “moving freely” around the town and district of the same name.

On Monday, large numbers of Taliban militants also entered Naway-i-Barakzayi, a Helmand town north of Garmser, and clashed briefly with police before they too fled.—AP