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KANDAHAR, March 5: Taliban militants killed eight Afghan soldiers on Thursday in an attack on an army post in the southern Spin Boldak district, bordering Pakistan, a military commander said on Friday.
"About 100 Taliban stormed an Afghan army post in Sheen Nari village on Wednesday night," military commander of the nearby Kandahar province, Gen Khan Mohammad, said.
"The eight soldiers were sleeping in their post when the attack was launched," he said. "The security guard at the post ran away, most probably he was a Taliban accomplice," the commander said.
Earlier, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), quoting local military commander Lal Jan, said the attackers led by a Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Wadood, came from Atghar district, southern Zabul province, and returned to the area after the attack.
Afghan troops launched a search for the attackers on Thursday, but no arrest had been made so far, he said, adding that US aircraft had also dropped bombs in the area. Government officials in Zabul recently claimed that Taliban remnants were regrouping in Atghar.
ENGINEER KILLED: A Turkish engineer was shot dead and another was kidnapped with his driver on Friday in an ambush by suspected Taliban on the road between Kabul and Kandahar, a senior Afghan official said.
The ambush took place in the afternoon some three kilometers from Sha Joy in south eastern Zabul province, the governor of neighbouring Ghazni province, Haji Hassadullah said.
"The two engineers were coming back from Sha Joy after their work. The Taliban had set up an ambush on the road," he said. "We don't know where they have taken the hostages," he said.
The governor of Zabul, Khial Mohammad Husseini, said that authorities had launched an operation to hunt for the attackers and the kidnapped engineer but that there were no immediate leads.
An official from Turkish firm Mensel JV meanwhile said that the two Turkish engineers were employed by Kolin Nafter, a company sub-contracted by US giant Louis Berger, charged with laying the road between the two cities. -AFP
