Taliban militants attacked local security checkpoints in a provincial capital in northern Afghanistan, killing two policemen in a fight that also left 18 insurgents dead, Afghan officials said Saturday. NATO said a coalition service member also died in a militant attack in the south on Saturday, but did not provide further details. In northern Afghanistan, Kunduz provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said Saturday that the Taliban attacked multiple checkpoints at about noon Friday in the provincial capital of the same name, killing one member of the Afghan local police, a community-based force, and wounding two. The Taliban then moved outside the city where a gun battle with Afghan security forces lasted until about midnight. Eighteen Taliban fighters and another local policeman were killed in the battle, and another 11 militants were wounded, AP quoted Hussaini as saying.
