KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led soldiers, backed by air support, and Afghan police killed more than 20 Taliban fighters in two separate clashes, officials said on Sunday.
A U.S. military statement said its forces killed more than10 insurgents during an operation in the southeast province ofKhost on Saturday, and did not mention any casualties on itsside.
In Helmand, a southern province also regarded as a Talibanstronghold, militants lost 10 men in an assault on a policepost, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.Four police were wounded defending their post.
The Taliban could not be reached immediately for comment.
Ousted from power in 2001 after refusing to surrender itsal Qaeda guests, the Taliban militia intensified a campaign in2005 to drive out foreign forces and bring down President HamidKarzai's government.
Suicide bombers and roadside bomb attacks, ambushes andkidnapping are the guerrillas' favoured tactics.
On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed himself in an attack ona NATO convoy in the western province of Herat, but there wereno other casualties, according to witnesses.
On Saturday, the Taliban abducted four Afghan employees ofa security firm in Maidan Wardak province, on the main highwaysouthwest of Kabul, a provincial official said.
(Writing by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by SimonCameron-Moore)
