Four members of a road building crew were found shot dead in southern Afghanistan today in an area where Taliban fighters have carried out similar killings in the past, a provincial official said.
Separately, a soldier with the US-led coalition troops, was killed today after a roadside bomb hit a car in the convoy of the troops during an offensive against Taliban guerrillas in Ghazni province to the southwest of Kabul, the US military said in a statement.
The death brings the number of coalition losses to 37 during combat this year in Afghanistan.
Twenty seven of those killed have been American soldiers. The bodies of the four men, who are all believed to be Afghans, were found in a roadside ditch in Maiwand district four days after they were abducted while working for an Indian road construction company, Dawud Ahmad, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said.
Employees of Indian road builders have been targeted in the past by Taliban fighters, sowing more distrust between governments in the region. The Afghan government believes that many of the insurgents cross over from Pakistan, though Pakistan insists it is doing its best to stop them.
Pakistan is believed to be unsettled by the Indian presence in southern Afghanistan and by New Delhi's warm relations with President Hamid Karzai's government, according to diplomats. That has led to speculation that the killing of the road workers may be a message of some kind.
The insurgency is going through its bloodiest period since a Taliban government was ousted by US-backed forces in late 2001, and guerrillas have infiltrated large swathes of the rural south, ahead of the planned deployment of some 6,000 NATO peacekeepers by late July.
Hundreds of people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting in the last few weeks ahead of the planned US hand over of control in the south to NATO.