Afghan policewoman, 16 militants killed in attacks

Jun 24, 2008, 10:30 GMT

   Kabul - An Afghan policewoman was killed in western Afghanistan by two men riding on a motorbike, while 16 militants, including foreign fighters, were killed in a US-led coalition forces air raid in the east, officials said Tuesday.

   The 26-year-old Afghan policewoman was killed by two men riding a motorbike on Monday as she was leaving a police post in Guzara district of western Herat province, said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, the regional police spokesman.

   'Police arrested the two attackers and now they were under interrogation,' Ahmadi said.

   This is the first Afghan policewoman killed in western Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001.

   Meanwhile, a US-led coalition warplane attacked a group of insurgents in Said Karam district of south-eastern Paktia province on Monday night, killing 16 militants and wounding three others, Esmatuallah Alizai, provincial police chief said.

   He said that most of the dead militants were Pakistani, Arab, Chechen and Uzbek fighters.

   Fighting between Taliban insurgents and Afghan forces backed by some 70,000 international troops, has been on the rise mainly in the southern and eastern regions of the country.