4 Afghan cops killed in clash with US troops

The latest violence in southern Kandahar province comes amid an upsurge in attacks linked to an insurgency launched by militants loyal to the Taliban regime that was removed from power four years ago in a US-led operation.

The Afghan police and US forces were in Kandahar's Maiwand district when unknown attackers opened fire on a district governor's office close to midnight on Monday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

Both sides returned fire and ended up shooting at each other, spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said.

"Due to a misunderstanding, firing started between both sides. The result of this was that four policemen were killed and one was wounded," he told AFP.

Also in Kandahar province, a bomb tore through a vehicle of private US security firm USPI Tuesday, killing two Afghan employees and wounding three, Stanizai said.

The bomb exploded as the vehicle passed, he said, blaming the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban militants and their Islamic allies.

Southern Kandahar was the power base of the Taliban government that was ousted after they failed to hand over Osama bin Laden, alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The area, along with other provinces in the south and east, has been the focus of an insurgency by the Taliban who have vowed to overthrow the government of President Hamid Karzai.

More than 1,400 people, most of them militants, have been killed in insurgency-linked violence this year, up from 850 last year.

The attacks in Kandahar include four suicide bombings in less than a month, which only killed three people, besides the attackers.

Three religious leaders have been also been killed in the country in the past few days, all of them members of provincial religious councils that advise the government.

One of the mullahs, Mawlawi Noor Ahmad Jan from eastern Kunar province, had been an outspoken critic of the Taliban.

The militants claimed responsibility for the killing of another, Mawlawi Mohammad Gul from southern Helmand province.

Karzai said in a statement Tuesday he was "deeply disturbed by these crimes, which are attacks on Islam and on the Ulemas (mullahs)."