Kabul: Gunmen killed a senior provincial official in southern Afghanistan while a US-led coalition soldier was killed and several others were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the same region, officials said Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the country an Afghan army soldier and 11 Taliban militants were killed in separate incidents.

Gunmen on a motorbike Tuesday morning killed Doost Mohammad Arghistani, director of the martyrs and disabled department, when he was on his way to his office in southern city of Kandahar, the capital for the province of the same name, said Zelmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

Ayoubi said Arghistani's driver was also wounded in the attack that he blamed on Taliban militants.

In another incident, a US-led coalition soldier was killed and several others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan on Monday evening, the US military said in a statement. The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the soldiers, nor did it say where in the southern region the incident happened. Most of the soldiers serving under the coalition banner are from the US.

The Taliban hanged an Afghan army officer from a tree in Chak district of Wardak province, west of the capital Kabul Monday, Adam Khan Serat, spokesman for the provincial governor said. The militants dragged the officer out of his house in the district and then hanged him from a tree, he said, adding that the officer, who served in the army in Paktai province, was visiting his family during his vacation.

Coalition forces, meanwhile, killed five militants in Rashidan district of neighbouring Ghazni province Monday as the joint forces targeted a Taliban sub-commander in the area, the US military said in a statement.

The targeted commander, who was among those killed, was believed to have coordinated direct attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, as well as facilitated the movement of foreign fighters into the area, the statement said.

In Darzak area of western Badghis province, militants attacked a food convoy Monday night, Mohammad Ayoub Naizyar, provincial police chief, said. The police forces escorting the convoy fought back and killed six of the militants, he said, adding that no police personnel were killed in the firefight.

Taliban-led attacks are on the rise in Afghanistan, as the militants, who lost power in the US military invasion in late 2001, have vowed to topple the Western-backed Afghan government and expel some 70,000 international forces from the country.

More than 4,000 people - mostly Taliban insurgents - have been killed in Afghanistan conflicts so far this year.

Source : IANS