Taliban suspected in attacks on Afghans guarding highway work.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Liz Sly

KABUL _ Suspected Taliban guerrillas killed at least six Afghans along the symbolically important Kabul-Kandahar road Monday, as the U.S. said it had dispatched extra troops to join the battle against hundreds of Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan.

Four Afghan security police died and four were wounded when their position guarding reconstruction workers along the road was attacked overnight, according to the governor of Zabul province, Hafizullah Khan.

The attack took place near the town of Shajoi in Zabul, about 180 miles southeast of Kabul and around 20 miles from the site of the latest battles involving U.S. and Taliban forces.

Another two Afghan security guards working for Louis Berger, the U.S. firm that is rebuilding the road, were killed nearby when their vehicle came under fire early Monday morning, the governor said.

The attacks come as a blow to U.S.-led efforts to speed reconstruction of the crucial highway linking the capital to the country's southeast, which has seen a resurgence of Taliban activity in recent weeks.

The road cuts through the Pashtun heartland from which the Taliban drew most of its support before the U.S.-led coalition ousted it from power. But years of civil war had turned what used to be an easy 6-hour drive into a 17-hour grind.