By DPA
Kabul, April : A NATO soldier, six policemen and nine Taliban militants were killed in violence in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldier died of wounds and three others were wounded in two separate explosions in the country’s southern region Monday, ISAF said in a statement.
The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers or the location of the two explosions. Southern region is manned by the NATO-led American, British, Dutch and Canadian soldiers.
Meanwhile, Afghan police clashed with a group of Taliban fighters in Arghistan district of southern Kandahar province Tuesday, killing nine Taliban members, Rahmatullah Khan, border police commander in the province said.
He said that the operation by more than 100 Afghan police forces came a day after Taliban rebels attacked a police checkpoint in the district and killed six police officers.
The Taliban took responsibility for Monday’s attack, with a spokesman saying they killed “several policemen” in the attack, but there were no casualties on the side of their fighters.
The poorly trained and equipped Afghan forces often come under Taliban attack in the southern provinces, where Taliban militants are the most active.
More than 900 police forces were killed in Taliban-led militancy last year, while the violence last year claimed the lives of some 8,000 people – mostly insurgents.