(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - At least 40 Taliban were killed and 14 injured in a cross-border attack the militants launched against police checkposts in Afghanistan's Paktika province Saturday, a government official said.

"Dozens of militants crossed the Afghan-Pakistan border and stormed Afghan border police checkposts in Nahmat Abad area of the Gomal district at about 2 a.m. local time Saturday and the police repelled the attack. As a result 40 militants were killed and 14 injured," Xinhua quoted a provincial government spokesman as saying.

The official claimed no Afghan civilian death, but two Afghan police officers suffered minor injuries during the cross-border attack.

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence of some 130,000 US-led forces in the war-torn country.

The US-led war in Afghanistan, which has caused record-high civilian and military casualties, has become the longest military conflict in the American history.

Washington invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the pretext of combating terrorism.

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