KABUL — Insurgents attacked police posts and a government building in eastern Afghanistan in a battle that killed six policemen and 21 insurgents, the Interior Ministry said today.

In London, the British Ministry of Defense announced that a British soldier died Tuesday night in an explosion in Helmand province. He was the seventh British soldier killed in Afghanistan in a week, the ministry said.

The attacks against government facilities started Tuesday in the Barghe Matal district of Nuristan province and continued into today, spokesman Zemerai Bashary said.

Hundreds of insurgents attacked the police posts and a government center, Bashary said.

"We are working on a plan to send reinforcements," Bashary said.

Insurgents historically used Nuristan's mountainous and heavily wooded terrain as a base for operations. The remote province borders Pakistan's tribal area, where insurgents also are active.

The Obama administration declared eliminating militant havens in Pakistan and Afghanistan is vital to its goals of defeating al-Qaida and winning the war in Afghanistan.