KANDAHAR, March 4: A French officer died after clashes with Taliban on Saturday while an Afghan intelligence agent and three guards were killed as more violence shook southern Afghanistan, officials said.

A Canadian soldier was meanwhile wounded when insurgents opened fire on a patrol in the volatile south, Canadian television announced.

The incidents involving the foreign troops occurred in Kandahar.

The French military and defence ministry announced in Paris that the French special forces officer was killed in clashes with Taliban forces. The officer of a marine commando unit was the second French soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.

The US-led coalition confirmed in Kabul that one of its troops was killed in a clash with insurgents in Kandahar.

One of its troops “died of wounds received in an engagement in Kandahar province on Saturday. Two insurgents also were killed in the engagement,” it said in a statement.

A roadside bomb ripped through a government vehicle in neighbouring Helmand province on Saturday, killing a district intelligence chief and three bodyguards, a district official said.

Mohammad Ali Barak, head of intelligence for Nad Ali district, was killed by the remote-controlled device, district administrative chief Asadullah Sherzad said.

The attack was carried out by Taliban loyalists, Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman claimed from an unknown location.—AFP