Taleban militants in Afghanistan have killed six police officers in an attack on their convoy in the south-eastern Paktika province, reports say.

A government spokesman said the militants detonated several bombs as the convoy passed by, and opened fire.

In another incident, three Afghan security guards working for the US-led coalition were killed by a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Kunar.

It was not immediately clear who had planted the device.

Bloodshed in Afghanistan has returned to levels not seen since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, with parts of the south and east particularly hard-hit.

Analysts say the attacks are the Taleban's response to being squeezed by the build-up of foreign troops in the south and east and that they are very difficult to prevent.

Some 4,000 people are believed to have died in 2006 in the insurgency - about a quarter of them civilians.

Earlier this month, Nato commander Gen Dan McNeill said that his forces were braced for a backlash following the killing of a top Taleban commander.

Mullah Dadullah died in a clash with Afghan and Western forces in Helmand province.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan policemen stand near the body of a suicide attacker in Kandahar. (AFP)

BBC