American soldiers stood near one of bodies of suspected Taliban members

KABUL, August 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Few hours after a bloody raid on a police station that left 22 people dead, three Afghan soldiers were killed in a fresh raid in southern Kabul, as an American military spokesman said a U.S.-led base came under rocket attack over the weekend in the war-scarred country.

The three soldiers were killed Sunday, August 17, night in the latest violence when dozens of militants attacked and burned down the local district office in Turwa, Paktika province, 310 kilometers (190 miles) south of Kabul, the provincial governor Mohammad Ali Jalali said.

"Last night a group of tens of local Taliban attacked Turwa district, killed three government soldiers and burned the district office," Jalali told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by telephone from the provincial capital Sharan.

Jalali said it was not known if there were any casualties among the attackers.

"Nobody else was injured or kidnapped," he said, adding that the incident was being investigated.

Jalali said in another press report that the guerrillas, reportedly numbering several hundred and equipped with rockets, heavy machine guns and grenades, fled to Pakistan, five miles away, after they overwhelmed the police headquarters and held it until dawn, when they destroyed the building, got back in their vehicles and fled to Pakistan.

Attacks have largely been concentrated along Afghanistan's southern and eastern borders with Pakistan, triggering repeated allegations from Afghan officials that fighters were being harbored or assisted by Pakistan, the accusation Islamabad vehemently denied.

Paktika security commander Dawlat Khan confirmed three soldiers had been killed in the attack which followed a major battle earlier Sunday in another Paktika town to the north which left at least 22 people dead.

Fifteen militants and seven government soldiers were killed in the major battle with hundreds of heavily-armed militants in Barmal town, 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Kabul, Khan said earlier.

Seven government soldiers, including the district security commander and the district chief's son were killed and one was injured during the fighting which lasted three hours.

"The Taliban escaped but soldiers in the district say around 15 Taliban also died in this fighting," he said.

It was not possible to independently verify details of the fighting in the remote border region.

Barmal is 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the rugged mountain frontier with Pakistan's North Waziristan while Turwa borders Baluchistan province.

Khan and Jalali blamed the attacks on whom the called Taliban militants who have stepped up attacks across southern and southeastern Afghanistan in recent months.

Attacks over the past week in which a further 60 people died have highlighted the continuing lack of security outside Kabul, particularly in the south and southeast.

The violence in Paktika province is the latest in a wave of attacks in the region that have underscored how unstable Afghanistan remains, despite the presence of 11,500 U.S.-led troops allegedly deployed in the country to hunt the guerrillas down.

U.S.-Led Base ‘Attacked’

In the meanwhile, a U.S.-led military base came under rocket attack in southeast Afghanistan over the weekend but there were no casualties, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.

"One 107 mm rocket landed in the vicinity of the coalition fire base at Zormat in Paktia province Saturday night," Major Ralph Marino told reporters at the Bagram Air Base headquarters 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul.

Marino was unable to say who fired the rocket.

The Zormat base, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Kabul, has been attacked several times since it was set up late last month following a major anti-Taliban attacks.

Some 20 months after the fall of the Taliban, members of the militia continue to launch regular attacks on the U.S.-led forces and government and foreign targets, particularly in the south and southeast which was its former heartland.

But anti-American and anti-government sentiments are also rising among local inhabitants who are angry at the slow pace of reconstruction process in the war-shattered country.

On August 13, a massive bomb on a minibus killed 17 people and injured three others in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali had earlier issued a plea for more international help to combat a spate of violence across the country, as Afghanistan faced major security challenges and needed international support.