KABUL, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - Taliban militants have freed four policemen captured during an assault on November 28 on a military convoy in the province of Badghis in northwestern Afghanistan, local security officials said on Sunday.
The policemen were set free after local elders and tribe leaders held talks with the militants, the officials said.
On the night of November 27-28, a 300-strong Taliban force attacked a military convoy of the Afghan national army and national police in the province's Murgab area, killing 68 personnel and capturing 19 soldiers and 8 policemen.
This year has seen the worst rise in violence in Afghanistan since a U.S.-led international force overthrew the hard-line Islamic Taliban movement in 2001.
U.S. president-elect Barack Obama has pledged to boost the U.S. troop presence in the war-ravaged country, and has also said he will order a step up of attacks on militants on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, including raids into Pakistan.
