KANDAHAR, April 22: Afghan police killed nine Taliban fighters on Tuesday, a day after a militant attack on a checkpoint left six border policemen dead, officials said.

About 200 police clashed with militants during the search operation launched following Monday’s attack in Arghasan district of Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, a police commander in the area.

Authorities recovered the bodies of four dead militants after Tuesday’s clash, while the insurgents took away five more dead fighters as they retreated, Raziq said.

It comes amid a spate of attacks on security forces in the volatile south. Militants regularly target the police force, which is seen as weaker than the better trained and equipped national army.

Last week, 11 officers were killed when militants attacked their checkpoint north of Kandahar city.

More than 900 policemen were among the 8,000 people killed last year in insurgency-related violence, officials said. The high casualty rate comes despite some $4 billion the US has spent to train and equip the police in the last three years.

Meanwhile, gunmen abducted two Indian road construction workers and a taxi driver as they were travelling Monday from Herat toward Kabul, police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said.

Authorities were searching for the men, but have made no arrests, Ahmadi said.—AP