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| Afghanistan |
| Insurgents kill four Afghan policemen, coalition soldier |
| 2009-03-18 |
| Insurgents ambushed and killed four Afghan policemen on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said, as military forces reported that nine militants and an Australian soldier died in combat. The bloodshed comes after a string of incidents since the weekend in which nine US and European soldiers were killed, as well as a number of Afghan police and civilians, in the Taliban-led insurgency. In the latest incident, the four policemen were killed in an ambush in the southern province of Kandahar as they were driving on a key road, the ministry said in a statement. The ministry blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan." The attack follows Monday's Taliban suicide bombing of police headquarters in the neighboring province of Helmand in which 11 people, nine of them policemen, died. Another policeman was shot dead the same day in the southwestern province of Farah. Also early Tuesday, Afghan and US-led coalition troops raided a bomb-making cell in Kandahar, killing seven militants, a coalition statement said. Three suspects were arrested. Two other fighters were killed shortly before dawn after attacking a police post in the province of Nimroz, another troubled region, in southwestern Afghanistan, the ministry said. The Australian soldier was killed Monday in the southern province of Uruzgan when about 20 Taliban insurgents attacked a convoy with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the Australian military said. Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, where there are roughly 75,000 foreign soldiers hunting down insurgents and helping Afghan forces secure the fragile country. Last year's surge in violence, the deadliest since the Taliban regime was removed in the 2001 US-led invasion, has prompted Afghanistan's Western backers to rethink their war strategy. Washington is expected to announce the outcome of its review in the coming days and is also due to deploy another 17,000 soldiers. |
| Posted by:Fred |