The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Ghazni

Three civilians and 15 militants were killed in a raid by US-led forces in Afghanistan, while Taliban rebels killed four policemen in a separate clash, security forces said Monday.

The US-led coalition said its soldiers had raided a compound in the troubled southern province of Helmand on Sunday, killing 15 militants.

A woman and two children also died, the US military said in a statement.

The troops went to the compound after intelligence reports indicated that Taliban-linked bombmakers and other allies were hiding there.

"Several militants barricaded themselves in a building on the compound and engaged coalition forces," the statement said.

"Coalition forces used a single grenade which killed the attacking militants; however, the building the militants were fighting from collapsed."

The bodies of the woman and children, along with those of several militants, were found in a search of the building.

In a separate incident overnight, the militants overnight attacked a security post four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the provincial governor's office in the city of Ghazni, about 130 kilometres south of Kabul, police said.

"Four policemen were martyred and two others were wounded in the attack last night. The enemy fled the area," deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Zaman told AFP.

Attacks on police within the city limits have been rare since the 2001 ouster of the Islamist Taliban regime in a US-led invasion.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said his group was behind the attack.

Taliban extremists, who launched a bloody insurgency after their ouster from power, often take shelter in villages and residential areas where they have support and launch attacks from there.