Seven guards working for private security firms were killed and six were injured in suspected Taliban attacks in southern Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday, DPA reported.
Five guards were killed and four were injured in two roadside bombings in the Wahiz and Band Aab districts of Ghazni province, the ministry said in a statement.
Two other guards were killed and two were injured in Ghazni's Andar district when suspected militants ambushed their convoy, the statement said. All the attacks occurred Monday.
Taliban militants have intensified their attacks on private security companies, which escort convoys supplying foreign troops in volatile southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Ghazni links the capital, Kabul, with the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, where major operations are planned by NATO and Afghan forces this year.
The guards died on the same day that 10 NATO soldiers, including five US troops, were killed in attacks in the east and south. It was the bloodiest day in months for the more than 120,000 foreign forces in the country.