[Quqnoos] At least nine Taliban militants were killed in a gun-battle with police in the northern Kunduz province, officials said on WednesdayThe fighting erupted after the Taliban militants attacked a police outpost in the district of Imam Sahib in daylight on Tuesday, District Chief, Juma Khan, told Quqnoos. Seven other insurgents and three policemen have been wounded in the fighting that lasted for a couple of hours.
Taliban have intensified their attacks in Kunduz over the past few months, imposing threat to security of the relatively stable Afghan north. Taliban militants have not made any comment so far.
Imam Sahib, a district on Afghan-Tajik border has rarely been coming under attacks of guerillas. Taliban insurgents have taken over some parts of two northern provinces from which they were driven in 2001, threatening to disrupt NATO's new supply route from Central Asia, according to officials.
A significant number of Taliban fighters have been stationed in the outskirts of Chahar Dara district of Kunduz and Baghlan-e Markazi district of the neighbouring Baghlan province, sources said.