An overnight Taliban assault on a border post in southern Afghanistan left 11 police officers dead, while in the north of the country gunmen assassinated a district intelligence chief on his way to work, officials said today.
Meanwhile, authorities in Romania said two of their soldiers serving with the NATO coalition in Afghanistan died in a roadside bombing in the east.
The Taliban have stepped up attacks on the security forces, officials and government employees during their spring offensive this year.
In the latest ambush, gunmen sprayed official Abdul Hussain with bullets as he was riding on his motorcycle today morning near the city of Kunduz, the capital of the province with the same name, according to local police chief Ghulam Mohayuddin.
Hussain, who was heading to his work in Chardara district, died of his wounds, said the police chief. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Afghan security official meanwhile said the Taliban have attacked a border police checkpoint in the country's south near the border with Pakistan, killing 11 policemen.
Gen Tafser Khan of the southern border police said that the attack took place last night in the Shorabak district of Kandahar province, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousef Ahamdi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to The Associated Press.
Khan says there was heavy fighting between police and insurgents, but the Taliban had more fighters and overcame the policemen. There were no reports on insurgent casualties.
Meanwhile, the Romanian Defense Ministry said two Romanian soldiers died after stepping on a bomb during a patrol in eastern Afghanistan yesterday. The two were transported by helicopter to a military hospital near Kabul where they died of their injuries later in the day.
Defense Minister Mircea Dusa said in televised comments today that other soldiers were killed in the explosion but provided no further details.
