KABUL: The Taliban militants killed ten policemen in central Afghan province of Wardak, amid ongoing fighting to wrest control of arterial highways, official sources said on Sunday.
The Taliban set fire to a government building in Wardak's Sayeed Abad district and killed the district police chief along with nine other policemen on Saturday night, a senior police official said.
Reinforcements from neighbouring provinces were deployed to regain control of contested highways, he said.
Repeated assaults by insurgents on strategically important provinces, such as Wardak and nearby Ghazni have underscored how volatile security remains in Afghanistan two weeks before nationwide parliamentary elections, the Arab news reported.
According to the officials, the Aghan forces had driven out Taliban insurgents from the highway that connects Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, to the major southern city of Kandahar.
Major power lines serving Wardak and Ghazni had been cut.
The power cuts also affected parts of the nearby provinces of Logar and Paktia, Afghanistan's power supply company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, said in a statement.
The statement further said, teams would be sent to repair the lines as soon as security improves.
The insurgents had taken the centre of Sayeed Abad in Wardak and all surrounding security checkpoints, killing numerous members of the security forces and seizing weapons, ammunition and vehicles,a statement from the Taliban's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.