10 Afghan cops killed in Taliban attack

Six policemen and a militant were killed Tuesday night in Helmand province in a Taliban attack, bringing the death toll in the troubled south to 11 over the last day.

Taliban insurgents attacked a police post in Helmand's Kajaki district some 460km south of Kabul, provincial deputy governor Haji Mawin told AFP.

"Six police were killed and the Taliban left one dead body as they fled. The Taliban have fled to the mountains and we are chasing them," he added.

In a separate attack earlier Tuesday, four Afghan policemen were killed and five others, including a district police chief, were injured when their vehicle struck a home-made bomb in Uruzgan province in south-central Afghanistan.

"A remote-controlled explosion killed four police and injured five other policemen including the Shora district police chief," Uruzgan police chief, Rozi Khan told AFP.

Militants have been waging a guerrilla campaign from strongholds in the mountainous terrain of Helmand and the neighboring provinces of Uruzgan, Kandahar and Zabul.

Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul share long mountainous borders with Pakistani tribal areas where the Taliban and their al-Qeada allies are believed to be taking refuge.

Meanwhile, a murky Taliban splinter group holding three UN hostages in Afghanistan for three weeks was silent Wednesday after the hostages' families plead for their freedom, but the US military was hopeful they were alive and would be safely released.

"We continue to remain hopeful that Annetta Flanigan, Sheqipe Hebibi and Angelito Nayan, the three UN workers abducted in Kabul on the 28th will be released unharmed," US military spokesman Major Scott Nelson told a press briefing.

The three, who were snatched from busy lunchtime traffic in downtown Kabul had been in Afghanistan working on the country's first presidential election won by President Hamid Karzai.