Afghanistan has seen a new surge of violence as Taliban and Afghan troops intensified the attack against each other, in which 33 Taliban militants and 12 Afghan troops were killed during the fight in recent three days.

Six Afghan troops were killed and a police chief and his driver wounded Saturday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb in Afghan southeastern province of Paktika, a UN spokesperson said in Kabul.

Four Afghan police and two soldiers were killed when the roadside bomb exploded the 20-vehicles convoy including UN and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) vehicles, the spokesperson said.

The police chief of Paktika province and his driver were slightly hurt in the explosion, but no staff from UN or ISAF was among the casualties, the spokesperson added.

Taliban has stepped up another surge of violence against Afghan government and foreign troops from spring, with the aim of destroying the upcoming September parliamentary election. At the same time, Afghan forces also intensified their attack against Taliban.

Afghan and US troops killed one Taliban militant Thursday, and killed two more on Saturday when they were patrolling in Afghan southern province of Kandahar, US military said Saturday.

In the fight on Friday night, Afghan forces killed 30 Taliban militants in the southern province of Uruzgan, provincial governor said on Saturday.

"Taliban first attacked the police checkpoint in Charcheno district of Uruzgan yesterday, and we fought back at once and killed 30 Taliban militants. Six government soldiers were also killed," Jan Mohammad Khan told Xinhua.

"According to our intelligence service, there are more than 100 Taliban still in this area. We have just found three cars belong to Taliban, and arrested one militant with 150,000 Pakistan rupee (about 2,500 US dollars) in his pocket," he added.

On Thursday, Taliban also killed three elders who were thought by Taliban to work for the United States, but denied by Afghan government.

US warplanes bombed a military compound in Afghan eastern province of Kunar at about 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and about 25 Afghan civilians were killed in the bomb, a local official told Xinhua under the condition of anonymity.

The spokesperson of Coalition Cindy Moor confirmed the bomb, but told nothing about the casualties.

The bomb attack by US planes came during the search for the missing ground team disappeared on Tuesday in a rescue operation by a US helicopter that was suddenly shot down.

The Chinook helicopter was shot down Tuesday in Kunar province by a rocket propelled grenade. Sixteen US troops, including eight Navy Seals, were killed.

Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

It is the first helicopter to be shot down in Afghanistan since 2001. The casualties were also the heaviest for US forces in combat in Afghanistan. After the collapse of Taliban at the end of 2001, a US-led coalition of over 18,000 soldiers remains in the country hunting down remnants of the Taliban and other Islamic militants. More than 160 US troops have been killed in and around Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

Source: Xinhua