10 militants, policeman killed in eastern Afghan clash

At least 10 militants and one policeman were killed while a district police chief wounded Wednesday morning in a clash in eastern Ghazni province, a source said.

"Taliban militants laid an ambush on police patrol in Andar district early morning. A gunfight took place. Army personnel arrived in the scene. The engagement left 10 militants and one police dead," army spokesman in the province Nazifullah Sultani told Xinhua.

District police chief Lutfullah Khan was slightly injured in the attack, he said.

A surge in attacks has been witnessed in the country since mid- May when the Taliban launched a yearly rebel offensive against Afghan security forces and NATO-led troops stationed in the country.

On Tuesday evening, gunmen abducted a former district governor in the country's western province of Herat.

"The militants kidnapped former Adrskan District governor Mohammad Dawood Norzai. He also served as campaign manager of Dr. Zulmai Rassoul during the presidential election. A search and rescue operation was launched following the incident," a provincial police spokesman told Xinhua.

Afghan security forces took the full operational lead from foreign troops in mid last year.

The Taliban insurgent group has launched several massive attacks over the past months to gain land as the security forces are struggling to take over the security responsibilities from NATO-led troops by the end of this year.

More than 44,000 NATO-led coalition troops, down from the peak of 130,000 in 2010, are stationed in Afghanistan. Some 30,700 of them are Americans and the United States plans to trim its forces to less than 10,000 next year. Endi