Taliban kill eight Afghan police: governor

August 26, 2010

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (AFP) –

Taliban fighters overran a police post in northern Afghanistan Thursday, killing eight officers, the provincial governor said, in an attack that underscores the militia's widening insurgency.

The attack took place in Kunduz city, capital of the province of the same name which has become increasingly restive as the Taliban expand their footprint across Afghanistan's previously peaceful north.

"Taliban attacked a police post and killed eight policemen. There were nine people in the post, one of them survived though he was injured," Kunduz Governor Mohammad Omar said.

Residents say some areas of Kunduz have come under Taliban control, and describe recruitment drives that exploit high unemployment and disillusionment with a largely corrupt state security apparatus.

In the southern province of Uruzgan around two dozen Taliban fighters and three other police officers were killed during an Afghan government operation that is now in its third day, a police commander said.

NATO and the United States have 141,000 troops in the country, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as efforts to quell the insurgency escalate, especially in the south.

Most deployments under a 30,000-strong troop surge ordered by US President Barack Obama are heading to Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south, though others are being sent north to reinforce small bases run by NATO allies.

Afghan forces and their US-led military backers have intensified a push to secure volatile regions in recent weeks ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had "killed and captured" about 2,750 (Afghanis alleged as Taliban fighters) insurgents during the past 90 days, a period that coincides with the higher US troop deployment.

It did not give a breakdown of the tally nor was there any independent confirmation of the death toll.

In the same 90-day period, 242 alliance troops have been killed in the war, which is dragging towards the end of its ninth year with momentum widely seen to have turned in favour of the Taliban-led (fighters).

So far in 2010, 462 foreign troops have been killed in Taliban violence, according to an AFP tally.

Two Spanish paramilitary police along with a Spanish interpreter were shot dead by an Afghan policeman at a training session on a NATO base in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday. Their bodies were repatriated Thursday.

The Afghan man was shot dead by security forces, triggering protests by angry locals who tried to storm the base.

ISAF said a joint Afghan government-NATO investigation team had left Kabul Thursday for Bagdhis province.

The alliance is trying to build up the Afghan police force and army to enable the country to take on responsibility for national security and allow foreign troops to withdraw.

Obama has said he wants to begin the drawdown in July 2011, though military commanders say the withdrawal will be gradual and conditional on the competence of Afghani security forces.

Marine General James Conway said Tuesday that Obama's withdrawal deadline was "probably giving our enemy sustenance".

NATO said one of its reconnaissance drones, which are largely used to monitor the border regions, crashed in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.