Four policemen and 18 Taliban militants were killed during a fierce battle in the Mianeshen district of the restive Kandahar province, Provincial Governor Asadullah Khalid said Sunday.

Some Taliban militants attacked the police on Saturday afternoon leaving four policemen and 18 insurgents dead, Khalid told Xinhua.

He also confirmed that four civilians were killed and 15 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in the center of Kandahar city earlier Sunday. The attack was apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign troops as it occurred only several minutes after the convoy passed.

Afghan police arrested five suspected terrorists in Kandahar in the past two days, according to the governor. Two of them were captured on Saturday when they were driving a car full of explosives to carry out suicide attacks. Some 700 people mostly Taliban-linked militants have lost their lives since beginning this year. Many of them were killed in Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban.

Source: Xinhua