Taliban in big attack on Afghan town, 53 killed

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 18 (Reuters) Hundreds of Taliban insurgents launched an attack on a town in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, and 13 policemen and 40 Taliban were killed in hours of fighting, government officials said today.

Helmand's deputy governor, Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, said it was the biggest strike in the province by the hardline Islamists since they were driven from power in late 2001.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on foreign and Afghan government forces in recent months as thousands more NATO peacekeepers arrive. Violence in parts of the country is the worst it has been since the end of their rule.

The attack on the the town of Mosa Qala, 470 km (300 miles) southwest of Kabul, was launched yesterday evening and the fighting went on until early today.

''Thirteen policemen were killed and six were injured,'' Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai said in a statement. ''Forty people on the enemy side were killed.'' In a separate incident, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy in the generally peaceful western city of Herat, killing himself and an American civilian. A US embassy spokesman said he was a State Department contractor training Afghan police.

Another suicide bomber attacked a US military convoy near Ghazni town, 125 km southwest of the capital, Kabul, killing himself and a man on a motorcycle but causing no casualties among US troops, an Afghan army officer said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Herat attack but there was no immediate claim for the second suicide blast.

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