Kabul, July 16: Taliban militants attacked a military supply convoy in southern Afghanistan, sparking a gunbattle that killed 21 insurgents and three border police, a provincial official said Thursday.
The convoy was targeted Wednesday soon after it crossed the border from Pakistan, said Hamidullah Zhwak, a spokesman for the governor of Paktika province. He said it was guarded by more than 80 private security guards, and he had no reports that any of them were killed or wounded.
Meanwhile, international and Afghan forces killed two insurgents who helped mount bomb attacks in eastern Afghanistan, NATO forces said. Though a major military push is going on in southern Afghanistan, clashes continue in the east, where a mainly U.S. force battles militants along the turbulent border with Pakistan.
Four other militants were captured in Wednesday’s operation in Kunar province, the military alliance said in a statement. It did not give further details.
Militants regularly use roadside and suicide bombings to attack international troops in Afghanistan, making the makeshift explosive one of the biggest threats to American and NATO forces trying to rout the resurgent Taliban.
–Agencies