The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Kandahar

An official says police have killed five Taliban fighters in a gunbattle in southern Afghanistan.

Abdullah Khan, who is the deputy police chief of Kandahar province, says the militants ambushed a police patrol in Panjwayi district Monday.

Khan says officers fired back and killed five of the attackers. He said no police were wounded.

Southern Afghanistan is a focus for Taliban-led militants who are stepping up their campaign against the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

More than 2,700 people have died in insurgency-related violence so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally of figures provided by Afghan and Western officials.