More die in fresh Afghan attacks

Three Afghan policemen and 12 Taleban militants have been killed after a convoy was ambushed in the southern Helmand province, officials say.

British troops have also fired their first shots against Taleban fighters in Helmand, since their deployment there.

In a separate incident, three Afghan health workers and a driver have been killed in a bomb attack in Wardak.

The attacks come a day after nearly 80 people were reported killed in a US-led coalition bombing raid in Kandahar.

'Martyred'

Officials say that Taleban fighters ambushed a government convoy in the north of Helmand when it came under attack.

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Afghanistan

"Three policemen were martyred and six were wounded," provincial spokesman Muhaidin Khan is quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

"Twelve Taleban were also killed in the attack today," he added.

In the second attack, a female health worker, her two colleagues and a driver were killed when their vehicle was hit by a bomb in Wardak, west of the capital Kabul.

The team worked for the Afghan Health Development Service, a local aid group.

British action

In Helmand, British troops used Apache attack helicopters for the first time since their deployment.

More than 2,000 British troops have been deployed in the province, which is also one of the main centres of the country's drug trade.

On Monday, at least 60 Taleban fighters and 16 civilians died when US-led forces bombed a village in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, Afghan officials said.

US-led forces blamed the Taleban for the deaths, accusing guerrillas of deliberately hiding behind civilians.

Eyewitnesses said an Islamic religious school and homes, in which Taleban fighters had taken refuge, were bombed.

The US military put the number of confirmed Taleban deaths at 20, with possibly another 60 killed.

It said it was aware of reports of civilian casualties and was investigating.

"Once you start fighting from buildings where civilians are involved, then you are putting those civilians in danger," a US military spokesman, Maj James Yonts, told the BBC.

He added that rebel commanders were "responsible for the deaths of those women and children".

Officials estimate up to 200 rebels have been killed in the region since last Wednesday, in some of the fiercest fighting since the fall of the Taleban in late 2001.