Afghan forces kill 17 insurgents in south

Three insurgents were killed and one was wounded in a firefight with police in Garmser district Saturday afternoon, district police chief Ghulam Rasoul Aka told AFP.

Following the incident Afghan soldiers and police launched a joint search in the district overnight. This sparked a battle lasting several hours with the Taliban in which 14 insurgents were killed, he said.

"At least 14 Taliban bodies are still at the site of the clash from the overnight battle. Four Taliban were also wounded," said Aka.

No soldiers or police were hurt in either encounter, he said.

Helmand has been hard hit by a wave of violence launched by the Taliban, whose government was toppled by a US-led offensive in late 2001. The Taliban seized Garmser district for two days last month.

In neighbouring Kandahar province on Sunday a suspected suicide bomber struck a coalition convoy and at least one US soldier was wounded, said Mohammad Anwar, an Afghan highway police official at the site.

The growing insurgency in the south has cost over 1,000 lives so far this year, most of them insurgents. Afghan and foreign forces come under regular attack.

Meanwhile, French General Franck Le Bot, who took command yesterday of Nato forces in Kabul province, said he has the means to ensure "maximum security " in the capital hit recently by riots and several attacks.

France will for the next eight months command the Regional Command Capital covering the city and surrounding areas, followed by Turkey and then Italy.

Riots in the city on May 29 left 17 dead and there have been a series of attacks since the start of July. Bot said these showed that "as far as my military mission is concerned, I have work to do in cooperation with the Afghans."

"One can't say that as far as Kabul is concerned, nothing will happen. It has happened, Now the means which have been put in place can allow us to ensure maximum security," he told AFP.