Eight policemen, three NATO soldiers killed in Afghan unrest (Roundup)

Nov 10, 2010, 14:54 GMT

Kabul - Eight policemen, three international troops and an Afghan soldier have been killed and 10 civilians injured in attacks across Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

Three foreign troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in two attacks by militants and a bombing in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF said Wednesday.

Two of the soldiers were killed in separate insurgent attacks Wednesday while the third died in a roadside bombing in the south on Tuesday, the ISAF said.

The alliance did not disclose the nationalities of deceased or details of the incidents, but most of its troops deployed in the south are from the United States, Britain and Canada while Americans form the bulk of foreign forces in the east.

Around 150,000 foreign troops are currently stationed in the war-torn country, helping Afghan forces fight the Taliban. The war against the insurgents is at its worst since the Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion in 2001.

A total of 633 international troops have been killed in the conflict so far this year, according iCasualties.org, an independent website tracking alliance deaths in Afghanistan, making it the bloodiest for foreign forces since they were deployed.

Seven policemen were killed and another injured Wednesday in the southern province of Urzgan when Taliban insurgents attacked them, the provincial deputy governor said.

'Our seven brave policemen were killed and another one wounded when a group of Taliban insurgents attacked their checkpoint in the Khas Urzgan district of Uzrgan province' Khudai Rahim told the German Press Agency dpa.

A policeman, who escaped, had helped the insurgent to enter inside the checkpoint, he said, adding an investigation is underway.

A spokesman for the Taliban insurgent, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said from an undisclosed location that their fighters had killed nine policemen in the attack.

Elsewhere in eastern province of Khost, a suicide car bomber blew himself up Wednesday at a bazaar, killing a policemen and an Afghan army soldier, Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai, provincial police chief said.

Ten civilians were wounded when a bomb went off in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of eastern Nangarhar province, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, provincial governor spokesman said.

Meanwhile, a joint Afghan-ISAF force arrested a wanted senior Taliban commander who led around 300 fighters in the southern province of Helmand, the ISAF said.

The arrest was made Monday in Musa Qalah district, it said.

Violence is on the rise as both Afghan and international security forces and Taliban increase attacks.

The ISAF has focused its military efforts in the south this year as thousands of Afghan troops and foreign soldiers have been taking part in an offensive in Kandahar province, aimed at driving the Taliban out of their spiritual home.

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