In a new wave of insurgency and change of tactic, remnants of the ousted Taliban regime have intensified their attacks on US troops instead of Afghan soldiers as the militants have killed up to five US servicemen and injured 20 others over the past two weeks.

Casualties of Afghan soldiers have rarely been reported during the course while the death of a US soldier in Paktika province on Friday brought to 149 the number of US troops killed in and around Afghanistan since its invasion against Taliban regime in October 2001.

The hard-die militants, in their latest attacks on US-dominated foreign troops, injured four American servicemen and their local interpreter in a mine explosion Tuesday in Ghazni province, 150 km south of the capital.

The bloody incident followed a deadly explosion in Taliban's former stronghold Kandahar Monday that left four US soldiers injured.

Claiming responsibility for the fatal incident, Taliban's spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi said that fighters of the Islamic Emirates, a reference to Taliban's former regime had killed 10 US soldiers.

He also added that a number of American soldiers were wounded in the fatal bomb attack, while the US military confirmed four injuries.

US military officers in Afghanistan have viewed the winter lull of rebels as Taliban's gradual death in the war-torn central Asian state, but the militants began belying the claim as they intensified their offensives by each passing day.

The new wave of insurgency is taking place in the backdrop of a US-backed government-initiated National Reconciliation Program under which, according to officials a good number of armed opposition militias including Taliban have laid down arms and joined the political process.

Prominent among them is the foreign minister of the ousted Taliban regime Mawlawi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil who registered to run in the September 18 parliamentary polls from Taliban's birthplace Kandahar.

Denouncing the recent attacks in Kandahar as a new tactic to undermine stability, Afghan Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin acknowledged that enemies of Afghanistan through launching a new wave of violence wanted to disrupt the ongoing political process and destroyed peace in the country.

Taliban's militias who vowed to fight till last in a mine attack killed two American servicemen and injured two others including a local interpreter in Urgun-E district of southeast Paktika province on June 3.

The militants in a mortar attack killed one US soldier and wounded eight others in Shkin district of Paktika province last Wednesday.

Taliban's elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, whose hierarchy was toppled under US-led military invasion in late 2001, has termed the Karzai-led administration as a "US puppet" and rejected its general amnesty as a "trick" to split Taliban militants, and called upon Afghans to continue Jihad or holy war till the withdrawal of US-dominated foreign troops from Afghanistan.

He also urged Afghans to stop working with the US military and companies operating in the post-Taliban nation.

Repeating Omar's harsh words, spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi warned late last week "Any one working for the United States would be regarded as a target".

Acting upon the warning, Taliban fighters have killed five Pakistani truck drivers who supplied fuel to US bases in southern Kandahar province over the past two months.

The militias in a similar act set on fire two trucks carrying foodstuff to Syedabad area on the Kabul-Kandahar highway Monday night. They also badly beat two Afghan drivers and warned to kill them if they were caught again.

Source: Xinhua