Dozens of Taliban killed

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- More than two dozen Taliban fighters were killed during an unsuccessful ambush of a NATO supply convoy Sunday, Afghan officials said.

The militants' bodies reportedly were found after the Afghan army was called in to Zabul province in southern Afghanistan, said Gulab Shah Alikhail, the deputy governor. Five private security force members were killed in the battle, CNN reported.

Alikhail put the insurgents' death toll at 32, while an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Zahir Azimi, said 28 bodies were found by authorities.

In other action Sunday, at least 10 Afghan police officers died in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, a provincial official said.

Brig. Gen. Matiullah, Kandahar province's police chief, said the explosion in the Shah Wali Kot district was most likely the work of Taliban forces, the Kuwait news agency KUNA reported.

No group had claimed responsibility for the blast, KUNA said.