Six Afghan policemen were killed in an ambush by suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas in the southern province of Helmand at the weekend.
A spokesman for the governor of Helmand told Reuters the policemen were on patrol late yesterday when their vehicle came under attack from rocket grenades and automatic rifles.
The attack occurred not far from a district in neighbouring Kandahar province where five police officers were killed in a similar attack earlier this month.
The spokesman blamed the attack on guerrillas from the former Taliban regime ousted in 2001 and their al-Qaeda allies.
The attack followed word from a Taliban official that the group's elusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had approved a new deputy for the south to assist a notorious commander suffering from wounds and had ordered him to intensify attacks on US and government forces.
Ten days ago, eight Afghan government soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected Taliban in the southeastern province of Khost.
A series of suspected Taliban attacks elsewhere in the south the weekend before last wounded five US and four Italian members of the 11,500-strong international coalition pursuing Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.