Taliban kill four Afghan soldiers in ambush

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban guerrillas killed
four Afghan soldiers in an ambush in the restive southern
province of Helmand where British troops have begun setting up
bases as part of an expanded NATO deployment.

The soldiers were killed during a patrol on Thursday night
in Girishk district and the attackers fled after a brief clash,
district police chief Khan Mohammad Khan said on Friday.

“The soldiers were patrolling in vehicles when they were
attacked,” he said. “Four soldiers were killed and one wounded
while one Taliban fighter was killed and five wounded.”

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said Taliban
fighters had killed 12 Afghan soldiers in the ambush.

It was the latest violence in Helmand, where a group of
British soldiers have already been stationed as part of NATO’s
expansion into the dangerous south.

The NATO deployment in the troubled region, the hotbed of
the Taliban’s stubborn insurgency, is aimed at allowing the
United States to trim its troop numbers in Afghanistan in
coming months.

The Taliban and their Islamist allies, including fighters
from Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, are mostly active in
the south and east close to the border with Pakistan.

Nearly 70 foreign troops, most of them Americans, have been
killed in militant attacks since the start of last year.

It has been the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces
overthrew the Taliban in 2001 for refusing to hand over bin
Laden, architect of Sept 11 attacks on the United States.