Police killed three Taliban and captured a former mid-level official from the hardline militia’s ousted government in separate incidents, officials said today.

Afghan and US-led coalition forces have killed more than 30 members of the Taliban in separate clashes in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

TALIBAN fighters simultaneously attacked two police checkpoints on a southern Afghan highway, and up to 14 militants were killed or wounded in the ensuing gun battle, an official said yesterday.

Afghanistan’s top Islamic organisation today called for an end to three days of deadly rioting over drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, as police shot four protesters dead to stop hundreds from marching on a US military base.