4 Taleban, 1 policeman killed in clash

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Taleban militants ambushed a police patrol in southern Afghanistan, and an ensuing battle killed four militants and a police officer, a provincial police chief said on Wednesday.
The clash occurred late Tuesday in Marja district of Helmand province as the officers were on patrol, said Helmand’s police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.
Four Taliban fighters and a police officer were killed in the clash, Andiwal said. Authorities recovered the militants’ bodies and their weapons, he said.
Two other officers were wounded and a police vehicle was damaged, he said.
Helmand province is the world’s largest opium poppy-producing region and a center of Taliban-led insurgency.
Last year was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taleban in late 2001. Over 8,000 people, mostly militants, were killed, the U.N. says.