Taleban fighters have attacked two police posts in volatile southern Afghanistan, with eight policemen and six attackers killed in the ensuing battles, officials said Saturday.
The biggest attack was in southernmost Helmand province, where about 90 Taleban stormed a police post in Garmser district late Friday, police said. Seven policemen were killed and six wounded, Garmser district police chief Haji Bahader Jan told AFP.
"Five Taleban were also killed. Four police cars were burnt and the police and district building damaged," he said. A purported spokesman for the extremist Taleban movement that was removed from government in a US-led campaign in late 2001 confirmed that about 90 of the group's fighters had carried out the attack.
The man, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, told AFP in a telephone call from an undisclosed location that 10 policemen and one Taleban were killed. He often calls the media to claim attacks on behalf of the Taleban but his links to the group have not been verified.
There have been regular attacks on the police in Helmand, most of them linked to the Taleban insurgency. One of the biggest was on October 10 when 18 policemen were killed.
The second attack on police late Friday was in neighbouring Zabul province, the interior ministry said.
"As a result of an armed clash between enemy and armed forces, one police was killed and another was lightly injured. One dead body was left behind from the enemy," spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP. He said the attack was carried out by "enemies of peace", a term Afghan officials often use to refer to Taleban insurgents. The insurgency has this year been the most deadly since 2001. About 1,500 people, many of them militants, have been killed this year.