Tuesday, September 19 2006 12:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kandahar: Two separate gunbattles between Taliban rebels and police in volatile southern Afghanistan left at least 11 insurgents dead, police said on today (Sept 19, 2006).

Three Taliban were killed in an hour-long exchange of fire in the Garmser district of troubled Helmand province before dawn today, provincial police chief Ghulam Rasoul Aka.

"Today at five in the morning, police clashed with Taliban in Garmser. Three Taliban bodies were left at the site. There were no casualties on the police side," he said.

"Another eight were killed when police launched an operation in the same district on Monday night, sparking hours of fighting", Aka said.

"They have taken other killed and wounded Taliban with them," he added.

Garmser district has been overrun and occupied by the Taliban twice since July. On both occasions the rebels were eventually driven out by Afghan and international forces. Aka claimed that the eight Taliban killed on Monday were all carrying Pakistani identity cards and were not Afghans.

Afghan authorities regularly allege that Taliban forces are based in neighbouring Pakistan's lawless border areas and accuse Islamabad of failing to tackle them. Pakistan denies the charges.

The remnants of the Taliban regime launched an insurgency after they were toppled from government by a US-led coalition in 2001. The insurrection is now going through its bloodiest phase.