Scores Killed in Afghan Battles

The death toll rose into the scores as Afghanistan saw some of its fiercest battles since the U.S. ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, officials said Thursday.

An American police trainer, a Canadian officer -- the first woman from that country to die in combat -- and 13 Afghan police officers were among those killed in the fighting Wednesday night and Thursday. Scores of Taliban attackers were killed in the violence, which included a ground assault on a village, suicide car bombings against military vehicles and firefights with Western troops.

The last two days underscore what appears to be a major Taliban offensive to strengthen its influence in the south as U.S. forces there hand off combat roles to arriving NATO units.

Canadian Capt. Nichola Goddard, 26, was killed Wednesday in Kandahar province in the district of Panjwai, 15 miles from Kandahar city.

In Helmand province, just west of Kandahar, hundreds of Taliban attacked Afghan police and government offices Wednesday in the town of Musa Qala.

Helmand Deputy Gov. Amir Mohammed Akhundzada said reports of more than 100 dead Taliban were incorrect. He said 40 Taliban were killed in the last two days in his province, “but we only found the bodies of 10.”

He said Taliban fighters had carried several bodies away.

In the western city of Herat, which is normally relatively peaceful, a suicide bomber drove his car into a three-vehicle convoy of Americans.

The explosion killed a U.S. counter-narcotics specialist working on a State Department contract to train Afghan police, the U.S. Embassy said. Two other Americans were hurt, as were three other people. Their names were not released.

In the southeastern town of Ghazni, a bomber exploded his car near a U.S. military convoy, killing himself and a passing motorcyclist.

Times special correspondent Wesal Zaman contributed to this report.