30 Taliban and 4 police are killed in Afghanistan clashes

MORE than 30 Taliban fighters and four policemen were killed in a series of clashes, airstrikes and bombings in Afghanistan, officials said today.

A group of Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in southern Helmand province yesterday, sparking a clash that killed 18 militants, a police official said.

The militants attacked the officers guarding a government compound in the district before being repelled by police. There were no casualties among Afghan troops,.

Insurgents have attacked the same checkpoint many times in the past, and the authorities had reinforced their positions.

US-led coalition troops, meanwhile, called in airstrikes against militants in the same province, killing more than a dozen insurgents, the coalition said.

Shortly before the battle, coalition forces spotted armed militants in small groups preparing to attack their patrol in Sangin district, the statement said. There were no coalition casualties.

Separately, a roadside bomb in the central Ghazni province hit a police vehicle, killing four officers yesterday.

A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up next to a British military patrol outside Lashkar Gah yesterday, wounding three civilians.