(Updates with two Afghan police killed) KABUL, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops killed 10 Islamist Taliban guerrillas in firefights in the south on Friday, the U.S. military said, while two policemen died in a roadside bomb blast in the east. Five Taliban fighters were killed in a raid on a suspected insurgent compound in the province of Helmand, and five more in a raid on a guerrilla hideout in the province of Ghazni. "They were killed in firefights," a U.S. military spokesman said. In the Helmand raid, troops also recovered caches of opium and weapons including rocket-propelled grenades. There was no independent confirmation of who was shot, and the resurgent Islamist Taliban, who are resorting increasingly to suicide bombings against Afghan and Western troops, were not immediately available for comment. The two national policemen were killed when a remote-controlled roadside bomb was detonated in the eastern city of Khost, a provincial official said. Three policemen were wounded. The violence came after the U.S. military said coalition airstrikes killed more than 45 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. The U.S.-led military says coalition forces have killed hundreds of Taliban militants in a series of confrontations in recent weeks. The Taliban have admitted some losses, but say Afghan and foreign troops vastly exaggerate enemy death tolls. More than 7,000 people have been killed during the past 19 months in Afghanistan, the bloodiest period since the militants' 2001 ouster. (With reporting by Hamid Shalizi in KABUL)
