6 Afghan security guards killed in Taliban hotbed

Six guards of a private security company were killed Thursday when militants ambushed their convoy in Taliban's hotbed Helmand province of southern Afghanistan, provincial administration spokesman Daud Ahmadi said Friday.

"A group of militants ambushed and engaged a convoy of local security firm escorting two oil tankers from provincial capital Lashkar Gah to neighboring Nadali district Thursday afternoon," Ahmadi told Xinhua. "As a result six security guards were killed."

He said the all vehicles had been damaged in the firefights

The restive Nad Ali district was regained with its neighboring former Taliban bastion Marja district in the wake of a joint Afghan and NATO force operation in mid February this year.

Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province in southern part of war-torn central Asian state have been regarded as Taliban stronghold.

Source: Xinhua