Taliban insurgents killed six Afghan security personnel Saturday in two separate attacks, Afghan officials said.
Four policemen were killed and seven others wounded in double-suicide attacks on their checkpoint outside a security forces station in the southern province of Helmand, said Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang, the provincial police chief.
Sarjang said five insurgents equipped with suicide vests were shot and killed by security forces. Mohammad Rasoul Zazi, an army spokesman in Helmand, said one army soldier was killed and another was wounded in the attack.
The incident took place in Sangin, where the Taliban have been launching attacks against Afghan army and police for several weeks.
Meanwhile, another policeman was killed and four others wounded when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Uruzgan province, said Rahimullah Khaliqi, the district administration chief.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in both Helmand and Uruzgan. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on Afghan security forces in the past year, waging offensives across the country.
Also Saturday, the Afghan power company said it repaired some power supply cables from Tajikistan that were damaged during fights between Afghan security forces and insurgents.
The company said there were still power shortages in the capital, Kabul, because their engineers couldn't work in some areas where gun battles continued to rage.
Kabul has been suffering from severe power outages in the past two weeks because battles between Afghan security forces against insurgents have disrupted power provided by Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan receives electricity from both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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