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10 Afghan Guards Killed in Taliban Ambush on NATO Convoy

At least 10 Afghan security guards were killed Thursday when Taliban militants ambushed a logistics convoy destined for U.S.-led NATO forces in western Afghanistan, a local official said.

The guards were securing the convoy when they came under attack in Bakwa district of Farah province, on the main highway connecting the west to the volatile south, said Naqibullah Farahi, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

"Ten security guards have been killed and seven others injured in the Taliban ambush," Farahi said, adding that the militants also torched nine trucks carrying the supplies for foreign troops.

A spokesman for Afghan police in the west of the country, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, said police were immediately deployed to the area to hunt down the attackers.

Taliban frequently attack convoys supplying NATO troops, in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, as part of their 10-year insurgency against the western-backed Kabul government since U.S. troops toppled their regime in 2001.

There are around 140,000 U.S.-led NATO forces in war-torn Afghanistan with foreign combat troops scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014.

Source: Agence France Presse


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