KABUL, Afghanistan – Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a U.S.-led coalition patrol in southern Afghanistan, killing one soldier, while an attack on police in the east left two insurgents and one police officer dead, officials said Tuesday.
The militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a military convoy in Kandahar province's restive Panjwayi district on Monday, killing the soldier and damaging one vehicle, said Capt. Andre Salloum, a NATO spokesman in the area.
He did not identify the nationality of the dead soldier, but the majority of the coalition troops are American.
Although NATO has assumed control of military operations in Afghanistan, the U.S. is leading a smaller coalition of a few thousand U.S. and other troops who focus on counterterrorism operations and the hunt for Usama bin Laden.
In the east, militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns at the police post in Khost province late Monday, which also left two police wounded, said Gen. Mohammad Ayub, the provincial police chief.
Police rushed reinforcements to the area, forcing the Taliban to flee, Ayub said. The insurgents took their dead with them, he said.
Also in the east, suspected Taliban militants released three kidnapped Afghan aid workers but are still holding two other hostages, said Gen. Abdul Anan Raufi, a provincial police chief .
The four aid workers and their driver, employed by the International Organization for Migration, were abducted on Sunday in eastern Paktia province, Raufi said.
The workers were on their way to visit a newly built school in the area, he said.
The three were released Monday after village elders intervened, Raufi said. The elders were still trying to win the release of the other two, he said.
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