Kandahar: Hundreds of rebels attacked a remote central Afghan town on Wednesday and briefly occupied its police headquarters after driving away the security forces, officials said.
U.S. military spokesman Colonel Tom Collins said he had been informed by the Afghan Ministry of Health that the toll from the unrest had risen to 20 dead, with more than 160 wounded.
In one of the incidents of violence on Wednesday, rebels killed a provincial deputy police chief and wounded three of his officers.
They had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at their vehicle in southern Zabul province, local government spokesman Ali Khail said.
The police had been driving through the region at the time to warn of an impending attack.
Taliban rebels took control of the police compound in the town of Chora, Uruzgan province, around dawn on Wednesday after hours of fighting with 100 policemen, said the regional police chief, Rozi Khan.
The militants left the compound hours later after torching police vehicles, but the fighters remained in the area and police didn't immediately return to Chora, Khan said, citing witnesses in the town.
''If our police go there, they'll be ambushed,'' Khan said. But he said no police were wounded in the battle and he had no details on militant casualties.
Despite an upsurge in violence across southern Afghanistan since mid-May, leaving about 400 people dead, it's unusual for the rebels to manage to force security forces to flee a town.
A spokesman for the ministry, Abdullah Fahim, said the final toll was still being counted and would be released later Wednesday.
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