Separate bombs claimed by Taliban insurgents struck Afghan security force vehicles killing four men, officials said Saturday, as the NATO-led force said 16 Taliban were killed overnight, AFP reported.
Attacks by extremist Taliban militia have picked up in recent weeks and about 21,000 US reinforcements are moving into position in the south ahead of what is expected to be a tough summer of fighting.
A roadside bomb struck an Afghan National Army (ANA) vehicle early Saturday in the southern province of Zabul, the defence ministry told AFP.
"Two ANA were martyred and four were wounded," it said.
Another bomb hit an Afghan police vehicle in the same district on Friday, killing two policemen and wounding four, the interior ministry said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Yousuf Ahmadi, said his group was responsible for both attacks.
A military operation that included air strikes by international war planes was meanwhile launched in the eastern province of Paktia after the Taliban attacked a government district headquarters early Saturday, a government spokesman said.
Police fought back in the Ahmad Khel district and four were wounded, provincial government spokesman Rohullah Samoon told AFP.
The Afghan forces asked their international military counterparts for help and they sent aircraft to bomb the area, he said.
Nine bodies had been recovered and one wounded militant arrested, "confessing" he was a member of the Taliban from Pakistan, Samoon said.
The media office of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed there was an operation in Paktia overnight, saying "approximately 16 Taliban" were killed. There were no details.
The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are waging a campaign to take back power, including with attacks on Afghan forces and the nearly 70,000 international troops in Afghanistan.
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