Eight Afghan border security soldiers and five Taliban fighters have been killed in a clash in southern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, a senior official said on Sunday. The fighting broke out in Arghastan district of Kandahar province after insurgents attacked a border security post on Saturday night. “A major operation has been launched against the rebels in the area,” said Abdul Razzaq, chief of the border security force in the area. He said two soldiers were also wounded in the fighting. Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb ripped through a US and Afghan military convoy in western Afghanistan on Sunday, killing an Afghan policeman and injuring three others, a police commander said. There were no casualties among the US-led troops in the incident in Farah province’s Bala Blok district, said Ikramuddin Yawar, police chief for the western provinces, including Farah. The US military headquarters in Kabul could not immediately confirm the blast. “It was a suicide bombing. I personally checked the remains of the suicide bomber,” Yawar said. He had been travelling in the same convoy.