led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with and called in airstrikes on Taleban militants in western Afghanistan, killing and wounding more than 25 insurgents, an Afghan official said Tuesday. The joint force has been battling militants in Bala Buluk district of Farah province since Monday afternoon, said regional police spokesman Rauf Ahmadi. Two police officers were killed and three were wounded in the fighting, which also involved coalition airstrikes on the militants' positions, Ahmadi said. A suicide bomber on a bike and a roadside bomb hit two separate coalition patrols in Farah on Monday, said 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a coalition spokesman. Militants also fired small arms and rocket-propelled grenades to attack another coalition patrol on Tuesday, Perry said. No coalition troops were killed in the attacks, but Perry would not say if any were wounded. Separately, militants attacked an Afghan army outpost in the same region Tuesday and the clash there was continuing, Perry said. In Kabul, meanwhile, a suicide bomber on foot detonated himself Tuesday next to the walls of the city's historic Babur Gardens, a popular public park, wounding three civilians, said police official Ali Shah Paktiawal. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the blast. The victims were riding on a minibus at the time of the explosion, Paktiawal said. The attack comes about two weeks after a massive suicide bombing outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul killed more than 60 people and wounded nearly 150. Nevertheless, the Afghan capital has seen fewer attacks this year compared to 2007. Early Tuesday, gunmen killed the spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, Ghamai Khan Mohammadyar, and wounded his wife, his brother and his mother. Hashmatullah Yusufi, the spokesman for the governor in neighboring Paktia province, confirmed the incident. Mohammadyar lived in Paktia but worked in Paktika, Yusufi said. On Monday night, militants killed four brothers – all policemen – and kidnapped their father from Qarabagh district in central Ghazni province, said a statement from the Ministry of Interior. Police are searching for the father. Afghanistan is facing an intensified Taleban insurgency nearly seven years after the US-led invasion ousted the militant movement from power. More than 2,500 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to a tally of official figures.
