Afghan police killed four Taliban militants during heavy fighting in the south of the country today, while suspected Taliban gunmen shot dead a judge in the west, officials said.

Al-Qaida has sent several fighters from Iraq to join insurgents in Afghanistan, a provincial governor said after interrogating an Iraqi suspect who was caught sneaking across the country’s western border.

A series of battles in volatile southern and eastern Afghanistan killed 14 suspected militants, a US soldier and an Afghan soldier, while suspected Taliban rebels fatally shot six civilians in a strong of assaults, officials said today.

Some 2,000 Afghan security forces rushed to an eastern province today after dozens of suspected Taliban rebels wearing army uniforms killed eight police and soldiers in an attack on a region that has been largely peaceful in recent months, officials said.

Suspected Taliban militants ambushed and killed five Afghans working on a US-funded project to end opium farming in the south of the country, officials said.

Suspected Taliban militants killed five Afghans working on a US-funded reconstruction project in an ambush of their vehicle today in the country’s south, an official said.