Insurgents allied to the Taliban attacked a police post in northern Afghanistan killing eight policemen, provincial officials said today, in one of the bloodiest raids on Afghan security forces in the area.
The attack happened overnight on the outskirts of the provincial capital of northern Baghlan province, said Zalmai Mangal, a senior provincial official.
Mr Mangal said the raid was carried out by loyalists of Hezb-i-Islami, an Islamist group led by former fugitive prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
"The attack on the post happened on a road in Baghlan in which eight police and two members of Hezb-i-Islami were killed," Mr Mangal told Reuters news agency. He had no further details.
Another provincial official said the militants used small arms and rocket propelled grenades in the attack. No one guarding the post survived, said the official who also put the police deaths to eight.
The strike was the worst for the police force in Baghlan by the militants since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban government from power in 2001.
The insurgents are mostly active in the south and eastern regions where they routinely are engaged in clashes with Afghan and foreign forces led by Nato and the U.S. military.
They have also managed to carry out sporadic attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in some parts of the north this year, the bloodiest period in the war which has entered its ninth year.
Reuters