Four Taliban insurgents were killed when roadside bombs they were planting exploded prematurely in the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, a local official told a press conference on Sunday.

All were killed on Saturday night, with three losing their lives in Arghastan district, and the fourth in Shawalicot district, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for provincial governor.

On the same night, Taliban militants attacked a police post in Dand district of Kandahar province, and the police fought back robustly, the spokesman said.

Five militants were arrested and the rest escaped, he said, adding the police seized 10 machine guns, two cars, two motorcycles, and two mobile phones.

Ahmadi also said the police had arrested six suspects involved in recent twin explosions, which killed two Canadian soldiers and at least six civilians on July 22 in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province.

He claimed the suspects had admitted their crime in the deadly explosions.

Still on Saturday night, suspected Taliban fighters blocked the road from Kandahar to Kabul for one hour at Hassan Kariz village of Shagoi district in the southern Zabul province, provincial police chief Noor Mohammad Paktin told Xinhua Sunday.

Afghan police and forces arrived there after receiving reports. The militants shot one civilian and wounded two others during a hasty escape, he said.

Coalition forces said 20 Taliban extremists were killed in the southern Uruzgan province on Saturday.

Afghan and coalition forces killed the militants after they attempted an ambush from a compound in Shahihi Hass district of Uruzgan province

Over 11,000 Afghan and coalition troops have launched the massive Operation Mountain Thrust since mid-May in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul and Helmand, the stronghold of the Taliban, to wipe out their enemies there.

More than 700 Taliban insurgents have been killed in the operation, according to coalition forces.

Source: Xinhua