NATO soldier, 6 police killed in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

Apr 22, 2008, 8:40 GMT

Kabul - A NATO soldier killed and three wounded in separate attacks, while Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan killing six police officers, officials said on Tuesday.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier died of wounds and three others were wounded in two separate explosions in southern region on Monday, ISAF said in a statement.

The statement did not disclose either the nationalities of the soldiers or the location of the two explosions. Southern region is manned by the NATO-led American, British, Dutch and Canadian soldiers.

Meanwhile, Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in Arghistan district of southern Kandahar province on Monday night, killing six police officers, Rahmatullah Khan, border police commander in the province said.

He said that the police fought back and inflicted casualties on the Taliban side, but could not provide any figures.

Taliban spokesman, meanwhile, took responsibility for the attack and said that they killed 'several policemen' in the attack, but there were no casualties on the side of their fighters.

The poorly trained and equipped Afghan forces often come under Taliban attack in southern provinces of the country, where Taliban militants are the most active.

More than 900 police forces were killed in Taliban-led militancy last year, while the violence last year claimed the lives of some 8,000 people mostly insurgent.