Roadside bomb kills four police in Afghan southeast

KHOST, Afghanistan, Oct 18 (Reuters) A roadside bomb killed four Afghan policemen in southeastern Afghanistan today, a senior provincial police officer said.

Three other policemen were wounded in the attack, in a remote area of Khost province, close to the border with Pakistan, Colonel Wazir Badshah told reporters.

A Taliban spokesman, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, said the blast was the work of the Islamic militant group which is fighting against the Afghan government and the Western troops stationed in the country.

Insurgents also wounded nine soldiers from the US-led coalition in an ambush near the southern city of Kandahar on Yesterday, a US military statement said today.

It said none of the soldiers were seriously wounded.

Thousands have been killed in the past two years of fighting.

REUTERS SKB RN1914