Two foreign soldiers, dozen Taliban killed in Afghanistan

Kabul - Two international soldiers, two Afghan policemen and a dozen Taliban militants were killed in separate clashes in Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.

A US-led coalition soldier was killed during a military operation in south-western Farah Province on Sunday, the US military said in a statement.

Police clashed Sunday with a group of Taliban in Bala Bulok district of Farah province, killing 12 Taliban militants, said Abdul Mutalib Rad, a police spokesman in that region.

Rad said that two Afghan police men were also killed in the two- hour clash.

Another foreign soldier died of his injuries after a wheel of a large truck he was working on fell on him Friday in the southern region, NATO-led International Security Assistant Force (ISAF) in a statement.

The soldier was brought to an ISAF medical facility for treatment, but later succumbed to his injuries, it said without disclosing the nationalities of the deceased soldier.

Most of the foreign soldiers in Farah province are US forces, while Canadian, British, US and Dutch troops are deployed in the volatile southern region.

ISAF has around 50,000 soldiers from some 40 nations in Afghanistan, while around 20,000 mainly US soldiers operate under the banner of coalition forces, conducting counter-insurgency operations in the country.

Fighting is on the rise mainly in the country's southern and eastern regions. More than 1,200 people - mostly insurgents - have been killed in Taliban-led violence so far this year.