KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – About 60 suspected Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, starting a battle in which four militants died, police said Saturday.
The clash occurred Friday in the Khas Uruzgan district of southern Uruzgan province, said Mohammad Zahir, the district police chief.
The militants attacked a checkpoint near the district police headquarters, and NATO and Afghan soldiers came to the aid of the police, Zahir said. He said there were no casualties among the Afghan security forces or NATO.
Police recovered the bodies of the four suspected Taliban, Zahir said.
NATO has about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan. Most are engaged in peacekeeping and reconstruction efforts in the north and west, but since July about 8,000 troops — mostly from Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States — have pushed into the Taliban's southern heartland.
They have been surprised by the ferocity of Taliban resistance and have sustained more than 30 deaths. NATO has said enemy casualties run into hundreds.
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