Taliban fighters have ambushed a truck carrying police in southern Afghanistan, killing four officers and injuring three others. Asmatullah Alizai, a provincial police chief, said the attack occurred on Friday evening near Talukan village in Kandahar province's Panjwayi district. Alizai said the three injured were in a serious condition. Taliban fighters beheaded two men in the village in December, saying they were working with Nato forces. Nato troops killed more than 500 Taliban in the Panjwayi area in September, largely clearing the region of fighters in an offensive called Operation Medusa. Canadian and US special forces are currently working to increase security in the area. More Afghan security checkpoints have been set up, a new road is being built, and schools and clinics are reopening.
In nearby Helmand province, suspected Taliban fighters attacked a convoy of Nato and Afghan troops on Friday. Ghulam Nabi Malakhail, a provincial police chief, said the ambush sparked a four-hour gunbattle that left 11 Taliban dead. The Taliban took their dead fighters off the battlefield, but Malakhail said officials learned of how many had died through intelligence contacts.
On Saturday a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled vehicle near a Nato convoy in southern Afghanistan, missing the foreign soldiers by metres but causing no casualties, police said. The man blew up his car bomb as he tried to get close to an international security assistance force (ISAF) convoy around 10km east of Kandahar city. The attacker was blown to pieces and body parts were flung across the area, as was his shattered vehicle. Andre Salloum, a captain and ISAF spokesman in Kandahar, confirmed the attack.