KABUL, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants raided police checkpoints in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, killing one policeman and wounding two others, provincial police chief Asmatullah Alizai said Monday.

    "A group of armed Taliban attacked police posts in Jalai district late Sunday night. The police resisted. As a result, one policeman lost his life and two others sustained injuries," Alizai told Xinhua.

    A number of Taliban fighters were also killed or injured in the fire exchange lasted for about three hours, he added.

    Taliban's purported spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility and said 10 policemen were either killed or injured in the conflict.

    More than 300 people, mostly militants, according to officials, have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan while militancy in 2006 claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people in the post-Taliban nation.