FACTBOX: Security developments in Afghanistan

(Reuters) - Following are security developments in Afghanistan at 1530 GMT on Sunday.

* denotes new or updated items.

* BADGHIS - An off-duty policeman was shot dead outside his home in the Qadis district of northwestern Badghis province, security official General Abdul Sameh said. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the policeman was killed by Taliban gunmen because he was a candidate in forthcoming provincial council elections.

HELMAND - Afghan and foreign forces killed 15 Taliban insurgents in an operation in southern Helmand province on Saturday, the interior ministry said in a statement. Two police were also killed, the statement said. The Taliban could not be reached for comment.

KANDAHAR - A suicide bomber dressed in military uniform was shot dead by police in an attempted attack on a border police checkpoint in southern Kandahar province, the Interior Ministry said.

PAKTIA - Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 16 Afghan personnel working for a United Nations-sponsored demining agency in Gardez, the capital of eastern Paktia province late on Saturday, police and U.N. officials said.

NANGARHAR - Insurgents attacked a burial ceremony for a village elder in the Khogyani district of eastern Nangarhar province, killing four of his family members and wounding seven, the Interior Ministry said.

SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN - Two soldiers from the NATO-led coalition were killed by an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the alliance said. It gave no further details. The British Ministry of Defense said two of its soldiers were killed in separate incidents in southern Helmand province on Saturday.

HELMAND - A land mine killed an Afghan soldier in Helmand on Saturday, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said. Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops have been involved in a big operation against the Taliban in Helmand since Thursday.

(Compiled by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Paul Tait)