An
Afghan police officer turned his gun on his colleagues as they were manning a
checkpoint in the volatile southern Zabul province before dawn on Thursday,
killing eight policemen, an official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the
assault.
Elsewhere in Afganistan on Thursday, a roadside bombing
killed 11 civilians and wounded three when the van they were travelling in hit
the bomb in the country's north.
And in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province, two policemen were
killed by a colleague in an apparent personal dispute, said district police
chief Shah Muhammad.
In the Zabul attack, the perpetrator escaped the scene in Qalat, the
provincial capital, taking weapons and vehicles with him, said Ghulam Jalani
Farahi, the provincial deputy police chief.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf said the insurgent group was behind the
attack and that the shooter "is now with us."
Insider
attacks are commonplace among Afghanistan's security forces, often carried out
by insurgent infiltrators. Two members of the international military stationed
at Kandahar Airfield were shot dead by Afghan colleagues earlier this month.
Both were members of Romania's special forces.
Last September, at least one U.S. serviceman was killed when an Afghan
solider opened fire on a group of American troops in the eastern city of
Jalalabad. That attack was claimed by the militant Hezb-i-Islami group, which
this week finalized a peace agreement with the Kabul government, expected to be
signed in coming weeks.
The international combat operation in Afghanistan largely ended in 2014,
when it segued into a training and advisory mission with around 13,000 U.S. and NATO troops in the country. About 3,000 of the
Americans are engaged in counter-terrorism operations.
Also on Thursday, a senior officer of the Afghan army's 205 Corps, Gen.
Abdul Basir Sheerwand, was killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the Shah
Wali Kot district of southern Kandahar province, the ministry of defense said.
Dawlat Waziri, the ministry's spokesman, said Sheerwand, a brigade
commander in Kandahar, was involved in an anti-Taliban operation when the
incident occurred.
Kandahar was the base of the Taliban's 1996-2001 government, before they
were toppled in the U.S. invasion.
The province has been relatively peaceful in recent years, though
military officials have said they believe that unrest in neighboring Helmand
province is set to spill over into Kandahar during what is expected to be a
summer of fierce fighting between the government and insurgents.
In northern Baghlan province, the 11 civilians killed in the roadside
explosion were all from the same family, according to Jaweed Basharat,
spokesman for the provincial police chief.
Five children and two women were among those killed and three family
members were also wounded in the blast. They were travelling home to their
village of Qaisar Khil when their van struck the bomb.
Basharat blamed the Taliban for the attack, though there was no
immediate claim of responsibility from any group.
source:
ABC NEWS
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