Seven civilians, 6 police killed in Afghan violence (Roundup)

Aug 4, 2008, 14:03 GMT

Kabul - Seven civilians, six Afghan police officers and more than 17 Taliban militants were killed in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

A father and three of his sons were killed in a US-led coalition operation in Waghiz district of southern Ghazni province on Sunday night, Sayed Ismail Jahangir, spokesman for provincial governor, said.

Relatives brought the bodies of the four to the governor's office on Monday morning and 'claimed they were all civilians,' Jahangir said, adding a team had been assigned to investigate the incident.

Meanwhile, three more civilians were killed when Taliban insurgents attacked a vehicle belonging to intelligence officials Sunday evening in Gardiz, the capital of the south-eastern province of Paktika, said Esmatullah Alizai, provincial police chief.

The agents escaped the attack unhurt but the three civilians were killed in the cross-fire, Alizai said

Also on Sunday in Ghazhi province, Taliban militants attacked a police convoy in the Zena Khan district, killing the police chief of the district and three of his bodyguards, said Haji Mohammad Zaman, deputy provincial police chief.

The attack also wounded seven police, Zaman said. An unknown number of Taliban also were killed.

Two more police officers were killed in Tanai district of the south-eastern province of Khost on Monday morning, when the vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a roadside bomb, Khyber Pashtun, spokesman for provincial governor, said.

He said that their vehicle was also destroyed in the attack.

In the neighboring province of Paktika, a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a mosque before security personnel could arrest him in Urgun district on Monday morning, Mohammad Akram Khepilwak, the provincial governor, said.

'The bomber and two others were killed in the blast,' the governor said, adding, 'At this time we don't know if the other two dead men were his associates or they were ordinary prayers.'

Khepilwak said the bomber had stayed in the mosque during the night and the locals in the area informed the police about his presence the following day.

Also on Sunday, Afghan and international forces clashed with a group of Taliban in Helmand province, killing 17 militants and wounding six, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The US-led coalition also said Monday that its forces killed several militants and arrested another Sunday in the Tala-Wa-Barfak district of the northern province of Baghlan.

The militants belonging to the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist group that ruled Afghanistan until the US-led 2001 invasion of Afghanistan forced it from power, were accused of being involved in planning roadside bombings in the area.

Four other militants were arrested by the Afghan National Army and coalition forces Sunday in the south-eastern province of Khost, another military statement said.

The southern and eastern provinces of Afghanistan have been hotbeds of the Taliban insurgency. More than 2,500 people - mostly insurgents and civilians - have been killed in violence so far this year.