 TROOPS in Afghanistan killed around 40 Taliban rebels in two encounters overnight, including a major battle near the Pakistan border in which Pakistanis and Chechens were among the dead, officials said. The nearly five-hour battle was in Paktia province that borders Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district where the government signed a truce with pro-Taliban militants last month.
The fight started when Afghan troops came under attack in the province's Barmal area on the border, the defence ministry said. "The result - 24 enemy were killed, their bodies were left at the site and we have carried them to our base," ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. "Among the dead there are Pakistan nationals, Chechens and people from other countries, as well as Afghans," he said. Eight people were arrested alive, including three Pakistanis.
A military commander reported overnight that six Taliban and a soldier had been killed in a battle in Barmal. It could not be immediately confirmed if it was the same incident.
There is concern in insurgency-hit Afghanistan that the peace deal in North Waziristan has resulted in more militants crossing into the country to carry out attacks. The US-led coalition said last month it had seen a 300 per cent increase in incidents in the area since a truce in North Waziristan was reached weeks before the September accord. The accord saw the Pakistani forces scale down their presence in the area with the tribal leaders pledging to stop infiltration.
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 Police reported, meanwhile, that four Taliban were killed in an attack Monday in Grishk district in the southern province of Helmand. And in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, the birthplace and core of Taliban activities, a truck driver supplying fuel for foreign troops was killed and his vehicle was set ablaze by militants yesterday, police said. The incident in Kandahar's border town of Spin Boldak was the latest such attack targeting civilians helping the foreign troops who have been based here to help secure Afghanistan since the 2001 toppling of the Taliban government.
Also in Kandahar a district governor survived an assassination attempt overnight, police official Esmatullah Alizai said. The district chief of Mia Nishin escaped unharmed when unknown assailants opened fire on his vehicle, wounding two of his bodyguards, Mr Alizai said. 
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