14 killed in Afghan clashes

KABUL - Fourteen people were killed in fresh violence in Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Among them were two members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), who lost their lives in separate insurgents attacks in eastern Afghanistan Sunday.

Separately, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle in the western province of Faryab, killing a local commander and four others, the Afghan interior ministry said.

Meanwhile, ISAF forces killed two insurgents in the southern province of Zabul Saturday. The troops were in pursuit of a Taliban commander who led attacks on Afghan civilians and security forces, ISAF said.

In the southern province on Helmand, insurgents killed two female civilians while attempting to target a patrol of Afghan and international troops.

In neighbouring Kandahar province, three Taliban commanders where killed in a raid by Afghan and ISAF troops on a Taliban hideout in Arghandab district Saturday night, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

Some 140,000 NATO and 134,000 Afghan Nation Army troops are currently fighting against growing insurgency across the country.