Kabul, July 12 (Xinhua) Taliban insurgents have raided a police checkpoint and taken away six policemen in the relatively peaceful northwest Faryab province, police said Sunday.
“A group of armed insurgents raided a police checkpoint in Ghormach district Saturday night and apparently took away six policemen to unknown locations,” Mohammad Afzal Imamzada, a senior police officer in the province, told Xinhua.

There has been no trace of the policemen yet, he added.

Meanwhile, four soldiers belonging to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed in a blast in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement Sunday.

“Four ISAF service members were killed as a result of improvised explosive device (IED) strikes from insurgents that occurred on July 11 in southern Afghanistan,” the release said.

However, it did not mention the nationality of the victims and the exact place of the incident, but added another service member succumbed to wounds received in a combat in Afghanistan last month.

The coalition forces have launched a major offensive against the insurgents in the southern Hemland province since July 2, forcing the militants to expand their activities in the northern provinces.