Remnants of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban government have killed six Afghan troops in a southern province of the country, a local official said today.
The soldiers were seized from a military vehicle in Washare district of Helmand province, the provincial spokesman said.
"Then the Taliban killed the six soldiers and dumped their bodies near an underground water canal," he said.
Taliban officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The radical Taliban, overthrown by US-led forces in late 2001, have declared a holy war against the Afghan government and foreign troops and aid workers.
Nearly 1,100 people including civilians and militants have been killed in suspected Taliban raids since August 2003 - mostly in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban and their allies are mostly active.
But suspected Taliban attacks have subsided since Afghanistan's first-ever presidential elections in October.