KABUL - Fierce clashes between suspected Taliban rebels waging an increasingly bloody spring offensive and US and Afghan forces have left at least 70 people dead in the last three days, officials said Thursday.
In the latest incident to hit troubled southern Afghanistan, nine Afghan soldiers died in an ambush on Wednesday in Kandahar province and more than 20 militants were killed in an ensuing gunbattle, the US military said.
Four Afghan soldiers and one US soldier were also wounded in the firefight, US-led coalition spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore told AFP.
The US military also doubled its earlier assessment of the Taliban death toll from another brutal clash in neighbouring Zabul province on Tuesday, from 20 to 40 people, along with one Afghan police officer.
Violence has spiralled in southern and southeastern Afghanistan since the country's harshest winter in a decade came to an end and allowed poorly equipped Taliban militants to mount new, near-daily attacks.
The Islamic hardline regime is still fighting to rid the country of the US-led troops who helped oust them three and a half years ago in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
But it is the Taliban who appear to have come off worst recently.
In Wednesday's incident, the Afghan and US soldiers were on a mission in the Taliban hotbed of Shawali Kot district in Kandahar when they were attacked, defense spokesman Mohammad Nohman Atifi told AFP.
He blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used by Afghan officials to refer to the Taliban and other Islamic militants waging a rebellion against US and Afghan forces.
"The toll for Afghans and US forces is nine Afghan soldiers killed and four wounded, and one US soldier wounded," Moore added. "An initial report indicates that more than 20 insurgents have been killed in Kandahar after the ambush."
The other battle on Tuesday is one of the harshest since the Taliban were toppled in late 2001.
The clash was sparked when militants kidnapped three local doctors in Zabul's Deh Chopan district and police tried to free them, Interior Minister Jalali said. "Finally the three doctors were freed safely," he added.
"Today, further reports indicate that the toll is going up to 40 for rebels," from 20, Moore said. Six US servicemen and five Afghan police were wounded.
General Muslim Hamed, military commander for southern Afghanistan, told AFP 44 insurgents had been killed in fighting since Tuesday.
There was no independent confirmation of the figures given by the US and Afghan officials and no immediate comment from the Taliban.
Meanwhile one Afghan policeman was killed in another clash between militants and Afghan and coalition forces in Zabul on Wednesday, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.
President Hamid Karzai has offered an olive branch to all but a hardcore of 150 militants accused of crimes against humanity, while the Taliban's former foreign minister this week urged them to join peace talks.
More than 18,000 US-led troops are in Afghanistan hunting militants along with the fledgling national army.
05/05/2005 16:46 GMT