Taliban Kill Afghan Troops, Police

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan officials say the latest Taliban attacks have killed at least 15 soldiers and four policemen.

Army spokesman Mohammad Hanif Rezaie, who is based in Balkh province, says Taliban fighters tried to overrun security post in northern Kunduz province early on Thursday morning.

He says they were using artillery to attack the troops and that along with the 15 killed, at least 13 soldiers were wounded in the four-hour-long gunbattle.

However, Mohammad Yosuf Ayubi, the head of the provincial council in Dasht-e-Arch district where the attack happened, says 30 soldiers were killed.

The disparate death toll could not be immediately reconciled.

And in western Farah province, governor's spokesman Mohammad Naser Mehri says the Taliban killed four policemen in an attack on their checkpoint early in the morning.

(KA)