Dozens of Taliban militants stormed a police post in southern Afghanistan early Monday, shooting dead 11 policemen, while two British troops were killed in a blast, officials said.


The Taliban, a hardline Islamist movement that was ousted from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001, claimed responsibility for the attack on the policemen in troubled Kandahar province.
"One of our police posts was attacked in Arghandab district. At this point I can confirm that 11 policemen have been killed," deputy provincial police chief Amanuallah Khan told AFP.
Khan said it appeared that the insurgents were disguised in police uniforms and there were indications that the attack on the walled compound, launched just after midnight (1930 GMT), was an inside job.
"Initial investigations indicate that one of the policemen had ties with the Taliban. The Taliban infiltrated the post and opened fire on the police -- there was no exchange of fire," he said.
Police vehicles and weapons were also seized by the attackers, Khan said.
Local witnesses said they heard gunshots for about half an hour after the attack began at the site, which is on a road linking Kandahar to neighbouring Uruzgan province.
A burnt-out police pick-up truck and a motorcycle littered the scene while blood was spattered around the room where the policemen were killed, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary confirmed that 11 policemen were killed and another wounded but could not immediately confirm Khan's account of the attack.
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said rebels had seized 15 weapons and torched two vehicles in the assault on the police post. "We claim responsibility. Fifty Taliban carried out the attack," he told AFP.
The attack came hours after two British NATO soldiers were killed and two wounded by a blast near Kandahar Airfield, where thousands of foreign troops are based in an effort to tackle the Taliban insurgency.
The servicemen were conducting a routine patrol two kilometres (just over a mile) west of the base on Sunday evening "when the vehicle they were travelling in hit an explosive device," Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
"Medical care was given at the scene and all four servicemen were evacuated to the field hospital at Kandahar Airfield. Sadly, despite the best efforts of the medical team, two of the servicemen died as a result of their wounds."
Forty foreign soldiers have now died in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally.
Kandahar province is where the Taliban rose to prominence in the early 1990s and is one of the worst hit regions in an insurgency led by the hardline militia since their ouster.
The French and Canadian foreign ministers visited Kandahar in the past week to witness the efforts of troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
More than 8,000 people, including 1,500 civilians and nearly 220 foreign troops, were slain in the conflict last year, according to a UN report.
Nearly 1,000 Afghan policemen were among the dead. The under-resourced Afghan police force, which lacks the equipment supplied to the US-backed Afghan army, is seen as a weak target by the Taliban.
Meanwhile Afghan and US-led troops arrested six militants including a commander "directly" involved in the preparation of suicide attacks in eastern Afghanistan, said the US-led coalition, which operates alongside ISAF.
Mohammad Ghanam, who was seized in Khost province bordering Pakistan on Friday, was part of the Haqqani network, the statement said, referring to a group headed by key Taliban-linked militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani