Roadside bomb kills five Afghan police

KABUL, May 6 (Reuters) A roadside bomb killed five Afghan police today, an Afghan official said, bringing the number of officers killed to at least 15 in the past two days.

The police were in a vehicle travelling to guard a road construction site in eastern Ghazni province when the remote-controlled device exploded, Ghazni deputy governor Mohammad Kazim Allahyar told Reuters.

Eight policemen were killed yesterday in a six-hour gunbattle after a Taliban ambush and two were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a car into their vehicle and blew himself up, police said.

The ambush, in the western province of Farah, sparked a gunbattle in which 17 Taliban fighters were killed or wounded, police said.

The Taliban and their allies have stepped up attacks on Western troops and President Hamid Karzai's government in a year both sides see as decisive in the battle for control of the country.

Five Taliban suicide attacks yesterday were less successful.

While two Afghan police were killed in one attack, the only other confirmed deaths were of bombers.

REUTERS RJ ND1318