Violence raged across southern Afghanistan at the weekend with more than 60 people - mostly rebels - killed, authorities said Sunday, as the country prepared to celebrate Independence Day. In the capital Kabul, about 7,000 police launched a major security operation on Sunday, conducting stepped-up searches and patrols one day after the Afghan education minister escaped unharmed from a roadside bomb attack.
Authorities have already announced they would hold a more low-key commemoration of Independence Day on Monday, rather than the traditional high-profile event, amid the surge in violence.
In the deadliest weekend incident, Afghan security forces killed at least 28 Taliban-linked rebels who attacked a convoy that was delivering supplies to international troops, the defence ministry said.
The ministry said that 28 "enemy bodies" had remained on the ground after the fight 10 kilometres (six miles) from the town of Qalat in Zabul province. Deputy provincial governor Gulab Shah Alikhail put the rebel death toll at 32 and said five private security guards were also killed in the four-hour battle. The interior ministry said nine guards had died. Seven Taliban-linked militants were killed separately in Zabul, an official there said.
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