Three civilians and a senior police officer died in Afghanistan on Sunday, as foreign forces and officials said more than 20 militants were killed in air strikes and fighting, mainly in the restive south. The three were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Kandahar province that Nato commanders said showed the insurgents' "complete disregard for the lives of innocent Afghan civilians".
Small arms fire and a rocket attack later killed the police chief of Musa Khel district of Khost province in the east, the provincial commander, Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, told AFP.
Both attacks came as the Taliban described the Nato alliance's announcement that it would begin withdrawing its soldiers from combat duties from next year as a "sign of failure" and renewed its call for them to leave immediately.
The hard-line group said the agreement signed in Lisbon on Saturday showed that Washington had "failed to get additional military assistance of the Nato member countries" or a commitment to continue operations in the long term.
US President Barack Obama has said that the 150,000-strong Nato-led force had made gains and stopped the Taliban's momentum, after flooding tens of thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan earlier this year.
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Brigadier-General Josef Blotz said foreign and Afghan troops had broadly halted the Taliban advance and won support in key Afghan population centres. ISAF meanwhile announced a series of deadly strikes against militants in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.
In Helmand province, more than 10 insurgents were killed in an air strike in Kajaki district in an operation against what it called a "district level Taliban command and control centre".
Armed men had been seen at the location all day and the strike was called as a meeting was in progress. More than five insurgents were killed during fighting between the Taliban and Afghan and foreign soldiers on patrol in Sangin district.
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