Taliban attack kills 13 Afghan guards: police

KANDAHAR (AFGHANISTAN): Taliban militants attacked a convoy of logistics material for international troops in southern Afghanistan and killed 13 Afghan guards
from a private security group, police said on Monday.
       
The convoy was on its way from Kabul to a military base in the troubled southern province of Kandahar when it came under attack last night, a highway police chief said.
       
"Thirteen guards of the convoy were killed and eight were wounded," said Ghulam Jailani, highway police chief for Zabul province where the convoy was ambushed.
       
He said the material was destined for the US military but this was not confirmed.
       
In an exchange of fire that followed, five militants were also killed and two wounded, Jailani said. Two trucks were also destroyed.
       
The interior ministry in Kabul confirmed the attack but said 10 men from the private Afghan security company that had been guarding the convoy were killed and three wounded.
       
It said in a statement the convoy of 16 vehicles was attacked by the "enemies of peace and stability," a term Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban militants. It did
not mention rebel casualties.
       
Private Afghan security companies, a new phenomenon in post-Taliban Afghanistan, are often contracted to guard supply convoys for international military forces helping the
government to defeat a Taliban insurgency.
       
The Kabul to Kandahar highway, one of the most important roads in the country, has becoming increasingly unsafe as the Taliban rebellion has gained pace.
       
In the past two weeks, two groups of foreign nationals -- one of 23 South Korean nationals and one of two German engineers were kidnapped on the road.
       
One of the South Koreans and a German have died, with the remainder still in captivity.