RAHIM FAIEZ AFGHANISTAN Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan and killed 16 officers, the Interior Ministry said yesterday. Seven Afghan police and soldiers were killed in attacks elsewhere.

RAHIM FAIEZ
AFGHANISTAN

Taliban militants attacked a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan and killed 16 officers, the Interior Ministry said yesterday. Seven Afghan police and soldiers were killed in attacks elsewhere.

The policemen were manning a checkpoint in the Maywand district of Kandahar province on Saturday when a large group of militants attacked them, said Zemerai Bashary, the Interior Ministry spokesman.

"We still have not found the bodies, but police in Kandahar have launched a search operation," Bashary said.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the militant group was responsible for the killings.

The acting police chief of Kandahar province, Omar Khan, said police were investigating and he couldn't give any details about the attack.

Violence in Afghanistan this year reached the highest level since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. More than 6,300 people died in the insurgency, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Spain's King Juan Carlos, meanwhile, made an unannounced visit yesterday to Spanish troops in western Afghanistan. Spain has some 700 troops based there as part of the Nato peacekeeping force.-AP