Suspected Taliban members ambushed government troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least three soldiers before fleeing into a nearby mountain range, officials said. About 25 suspected Taliban fighters carried out the attacks in Naish, a village 40 miles north of the southern city of Kandahar, said Mohammed Akram, a regional police chief. Armed with automatic weapons, the attackers first stopped a vehicle owned by the local aid group Afghan Humanitarian Development Society, Akram said. They forced the Afghan driver out and set his car ablaze. They later opened fire on two military vehicles returning to Kandahar from neighboring Uruzgan province, killing the soldiers, Akram said. "We have sent more troops to Naish to find these Taliban as soon as possible," Akram said. Remnants of the Taliban are believed to have stepped up attacks against government troops in recent weeks in southern Afghanistan, a former Taliban stronghold. The Taliban government was toppled in a U.S.-led war in 2001. About 11,500 coalition troops, the bulk of them American, are still in the country hunting down remnants of the former regime. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An Afghan soldier aims his gun during an exercise at Kabul's Army Training Center, July 23, 2003. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)