Afghan insurgents attack NATO forces

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents attacked a Danish camp in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, seriously wounding one soldier in the third assault on Denmark's contingent since it deployed to the volatile region last week.\nA Taliban ambush in the same province Tuesday killed three British soldiers and seriously wounded a fourth. They were the first NATO deaths since the alliance assumed military control of southern Afghanistan from a U.S.-led coalition Monday.\nThe Danish soldier injured in the attack on the camp in the remote district of Musa Qala, in Helmand province, was transferred to a hospital in the city of Kandahar, the Danish Army Operational Command said in a statement. No further details were immediately available.\nA raid by Afghan forces backed by coalition aircraft killed 18 Taliban militants in an insurgent hide-out in Helmand late Tuesday, local police chief Ghulam Rasool said. An Afghan policeman was killed during the battle, and four Taliban were wounded, he said.\nThe raid took place in the village of Habibullah near the city of Garmser, which Taliban militants seized and held for several days last month before U.S.-led coalition troops and Afghan forces wrested it back.\nPolice confiscated eight AK-47s, four rocket-propelled grenades and four motorcycles, Rasool said. Afghan forces killed 23 insurgents Sunday in attacks on two Taliban hideous near Garmser.\nAfghanistan is being wracked by its deadliest outbreak of violence since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting Osama bin Laden. More than 900 people -- mainly militants -- have been killed since May.\nA spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, Col. Tom Collins, said pamphlets from Taliban leader Mullah Omar urging Afghans to rise up against the U.S. and its allies had recently been distributed. He offered no further details.\nThe pamphlets claimed Western forces were "out to destroy Muslims," and expressed pride in suicide bombers, even those who kill innocent civilians, Collins said.\n ... there's no doubt it's from Omar," he told The Associated Press. He didn't say whether the intelligence indicated the fugitive militia leader was in the country. Afghan officials have claimed Omar is hiding in Pakistan, which Islamabad denies.\nAn explosion destroyed an Afghan Finance Ministry car in Kabul, killing the driver and wounding a passenger and a bystander, officials said.\nOfficials deported seven Chinese women for prostitution and serving alcohol in Kabul.\nThe Afghan government has intensified its campaign against vice over the past month, destroying hundreds of bottles of alcohol in front of journalists and announcing plans to re-establish a Vice and Virtues Ministry, which had been disbanded after the fall of the Taliban government.\n--Associated Press writers Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.