4 Afghan police killed in ambush

Militants attacked a police vehicle in western Afghanistan, killing four officers, an official said Wednesday, a day after 13 suspected Taliban died in clashes with Afghan and western forces.

The police were ambushed as they traveled by car in Guzara district, Herat province on Tuesday evening, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Four officers were killed and two others wounded, Nekzad said.

That attack came a day after Afghan and international forces clashed with Taliban insurgents in two separate gun battles in the south and west, leaving 13 suspected militants dead and four other people wounded.

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces launched an overnight operation late Monday in Bakwa district in western Farah province, killing two suspected militants and wounding two, said a spokesman for provincial police chief, Baryalai Khan. Two police were wounded, and eight suspected militants arrested.

In the volatile southern province of Zabul, Afghan army and NATO troops surrounded Taliban militants Monday evening and told them to surrender, said regional Afghan army commander Gen. Rahmetullah Raufi.

The Taliban opened fire, and the ensuing battle left 11 Taliban dead, but there were no casualties among Afghan or NATO troops, Raufi said.

Meanwhile in the relatively calm north, a bomb exploded outside the Sari Pul provincial governor's home Tuesday morning, but no one was injured, said the governor, Eqbal Munib. He said it was the third bomb targeting him in the past year.

Taliban-led militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks, but NATO forces claim to have blunted a vaunted rebel "spring offensive" with a series of military operations aimed at consolidating the shaky grip of President Hamid Karzai's government.