Gunmen killed nine Afghan troops close to the border with Pakistan, a provincial government official said today.
The soldiers were ambushed while on night patrol in the remote Chakool Ghar area late yesterday.
"Two of those killed were officers and the other seven were soldiers," the official said. "The car they were travelling and their weapons have gone missing too."
Taliban activity has fallen off over the winter, and US-led forces operating in the south and southeast have kept the pressure on Afghanistan's vanquished rulers following their failure to disrupt an historic presidential election in October.
