KABUL: Violence raged across southern Afghanistan in which 73 Taliban and 5 security guards were killed, authorities said Sunday as the country prepared to celebrate independence day.In the capital Kabul, about 7,000 police launched a major security operation on Sunday, conducting stepped-up searches and patrols one day after the Afghan education minister escaped unharmed from a roadside bomb attack.Authorities have already announced they would hold a more low-key commemoration of Independence Day on Monday, rather than the traditional high-profile event, amid the surge in violence.In the deadliest weekend incident, Afghan security forces killed at least 28 Taliban-linked rebels who attacked a convoy that was delivering supplies to international troops in southern Afghanistan, the defence ministry said.The ministry said that 28 "enemy bodies" had remained on the ground after the fight 10 kilometres (six miles) from the town of Qalat in Zabul province.Nineteen bodies were taken to a hospital and the remainder, which were in a bad condition, were buried, it said.But deputy provincial governor Gulab Shah Alikhail put the rebel death toll at 32, and added that five private security guards were also killed in the four-hour battle.Also in the south, a roadside bomb hit a police jeep late Saturday and killed 10 officers, said the police chief of Kandahar province, Mutiullah Khan.He blamed the bombing on the "enemies of Afghanistan"
-- a phrase most Afghan officials use to refer to Taliban militants."A roadside bomb struck a police vehicle. There were 10 policemen in the car who were all killed," Khan said.Roadside bombs are widely used by the Taliban and other militants in their attacks on Afghan and foreign troops.
