Conflicts and battles elsewhere in Afghanistan left 27 persons including 23 suspected Taliban insurgents and four police constables dead on Tuesday, officials said.

In the wee hours of Tuesday a group of insurgents came in contact with police in Tanai district of eastern Khost province.

"It was very early this morning when police with the support of the US-led Coalition forces and aircraft's backing clashed with Taliban insurgents during which 18 rebels were killed," a senior police officer Gul Dad told Xinhua.

He also added eight more rebels got wounded.

However, he did not say if there were any casualties on Afghan and Coalition forces.

Moreover, a similar battle between police and militants in Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province claimed the lives of four police constables.

"Taliban militants raided a police checkpoint at 3 A.M. this morning and police returned fire. During the firefight a mine planted by rebels struck a police van killing four aboard," a senior police officer Gulab Khan told Xinhua.

This clash took place in Uruzgan's provincial capital Trinkot and according to Taliban's purported spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, eight police were killed.

Meanwhile, Afghan police Tuesday morning put down the Taliban assault on a district center of southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, leaving more than five insurgents dead and eight others injured, said an official.

Sazer Bari, the chief of Day Chopan district, told Xinhua that it occurred at around 4 A.M.(GMT2330) when a group of Taliban militants launched attacks on the district center.

"Five militants were killed and two police sustained injury in the two hours' fighting," he said.

Afghan police also captured some weapons and ammunition like AK-47s and mortars from Taliban rebels, he added.

Attacks on Afghan and international troops are on the rise during past weeks especially in southern and eastern Afghanistan where the Taliban militants continue to demonstrate their strength through suicide and roadside bombings.

Militancy and conflicts have claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people with some 700 civilians so far this year in Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2008)