Taliban infiltrate base, kill at least 9 Afghan police: officials

KABUL: Afghan Taliban fighters disguised in police uniforms infiltrated a security forces compound in the southern Afghan province of Helmand and killed at least 9 policemen, according to Afghan officials on Wednesday.

The attack, in the Musa Qala district, was the latest in a widening insurgency that has killed thousands of Afghan security force members and civilians since NATO forces ended combat operations at the end of last year.

Other sources confirmed the attack but gave differing casualty figures, with Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the governor of Helmand saying nine policemen had been killed.

“The Taliban were in police uniform and had police vehicles and entered a police compound where they killed all 14 policemen and took their weapons,” said a security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said the Taliban then went to another checkpoint where they killed another policeman.

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Taliban in southern Afghanistan said in a text message that 12 policemen including two officers were killed in the attack and 12 weapons captured.

Earlier on Friday, multiple bombings in Kabul targetted an army complex, a police academy and a US special forces base, officials said. The wave of violence has underscored Afghanistan’s volatile security situation and the potency of the Taliban militancy, even though the group is riven by growing internal divisions.

Experts say the growing number of attacks demonstrates new Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor’s attempts to boost his image among militant cadres and drive attention away from internal rifts over his leadership.