At least fourteen Afghan police and a provincial official have been killed in three separate insurgent attacks across northern Afghanistan, government and security officials said on Sunday. The north has largely escaped the bulk of fighting which pits a resurgent Taliban insurgency against nearly 150,000 Nato-led foreign troops, mostly in the south.
Nine police died when their remote checkpost was overrun by insurgents in the Emam Saheb district of Kunduz province late on Saturday, provincial district head Ayub Aqyar said.
"Dozens of Taliban overran their post," Aqyar said. A home-made bomb also killed head of Qaleh Zaal district police in Kunduz, along with his driver, provincial spokesman Mohboobullah Saidi said. Two others were also wounded in the attack.
In usually peaceful Badakhshan province, five police died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Kashmir district, provincial police chief Aqa Noor Kintoz said.
Under-trained, poorly paid and ill-equipped Afghan police have borne the brunt of increasingly frequent Taliban attacks in both urban and rural parts of the country. Newly appointed Afghan Interior Minister General Bismillah Khan last week announced plans to step up police training as local security forces prepare to take security responsibility from US and Nato troops within four years.