Taliban fighters on Thursday stormed a police post in southern Afghanistan, killing 10 in the latest in a surge of attacks as the US fine-tuned a new strategy for the war-torn nation. The brazen early morning attack took place in the Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold, the interior ministry said.
"Nine hero policemen were martyred in the cowardly attack by the enemies of Afghanistan," it said, using a phrase that commonly refers to Taliban fighters, who are battling to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.
Militants also ambushed police reinforcements from the provincial capital Lashkar Gah led by the deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan as they were about to arrive at the scene, sparking another battle, Khan said. "Another policeman was killed and two were wounded in the subsequent one and half hours of fighting," he said. The Taliban fled the area after the attack but an operation was under way to hunt down the attackers, he said.
Helmand provincial police chief Assadullah Shairzad said authorities were investigating how the militants managed to overpower the policemen. "We are investigating the incident and how it happened," he told AFP. Deputy provincial police chief Kamaluddin Khan said the insurgents had sustained casualties, but was unable to give any further details. The small police building lies on a road connecting Nahri Sarraj to the neighbouring district of Nad Ali, and is used to secure both a nearby village and the road, said the deputy police chief.