Afghan violence kills 500 in last 3 weeks

Fighting on Saturday killed six insurgents and three police, officials said. Late Friday, a top Afghan intelligence agent narrowly survived a bomb attack on his convoy that killed three other people near the capital, Kabul.

Much of the recent Taliban fighting is believed funded by the country's $2.8 billion trade in opium and heroin about 90 percent of the world's supply.

The daily violence has raised fears of a Taliban resurgence almost five years after the Islamic extremists were driven out by a US-led invasion for harbouring al-Qaeda.

More than 44 militants were among those killed in the last week. More than 30 of them died in a battle with Canadian and Afghan troops in Zabul province on Monday, a coalition statement said.

A coalition spokesman, Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said there would be no letup in attacks on militants.

"We will not be deterred from our mission to provide a safe and secure environment to the Afghan people," he said in a US military statement.

In an apparent attempt to kill Kabul's director of government intelligence, Humayoon Aini, a bomb ripped through the first car in his convoy late Friday, killing a local politician and two other people, said Kabul's police chief, Amanullah Ghazar.