Attacks, clashes leave 28 dead

Two battles in southern Afghanistan killed 18 suspected militants, including seven described as foreigners, and 10 Afghans died in two explosions elsewhere in the country, Afghan officials said.

Thirteen of the suspected militants were killed in an operation in the Garmsir district of Helmand, the Interior Ministry said. The other five died in Helmand’s Sangin district, it said.

In Paktika province, a local government leader, four policemen and a driver were killed when ammunition they were going to confiscate exploded, a spokesman said.

In the south, four police officers died in a roadside bombing.