Roadside bomb kills Afghan policeman, wounds two

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Apr 12 (Reuters) A roadside bomb hit an Afghan police vehicle today killing a policeman and wounding two, in the latest attack in a spate of intensified violence, a provincial official said.

Separately, authorities in the southern province of Kandahar said they had arrested three Taliban, including a commander identified as Mullah Shafiq, on suspicion of involvement in recent violence including a suicide bomb attack.

The police vehicle was hit by a blast in the southern province of Helmand, where three British soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force were wounded in a similar incident on Monday.

The Taliban, fighting since their overthrow in 2001 to force foreign troops out and topple the Western-backed government, have claimed responsibility for many of the attacks across the country in recent weeks.

Despite the rising violence, the US military plans to cut its Afghan force from more than 19,000 to about 16,500.

Fellow NATO members, including Britain, the Netherlands and Canada, are sending reinforcements to take over responsibilities from US forces in the south, where Taliban are most active.

About 3,300 British troops will soon be based in Helmand. Canada has about 2,200 troops based in Kandahar and the Netherlands is due to send about 1,400 troops to Uruzgan province, another insurgent hotspot to the north of Kandahar.

REUTERS SI RS1513