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12 killed in new Afghan unrest
[Bangla Daily Star] Taliban attacked a police post in northern Afghanistan early Monday killing four policemen, while eight more people were killed in other insurgency-linked violence, authorities said.

The police were attacked near the northern town of Kunduz where German troops with a Nato-led force that is helping the government to fight a growing Taliban-led insurgency and build its own forces are based.

"Four policemen were martyred when Taliban attacked the police post," Kunduz police chief General Abdul Razaq told AFP.

Attacks have picked up in the area, which is on the border with Tajikistan, with clashes reported between Taliban and security forces in recent days. Provincial governor Mohammad Omar was wounded in a bombing on Saturday.

There have also been days of clashes in the northwestern province of Badghis, bordering Turkmenistan, where Afghan soldiers have been working to clear out insurgents ahead of August 20 elections.

On Sunday, Afghan troops killed five insurgents and wounded eight in the province's Bala Murghab district, the army spokesman for western Afghanistan, Abdul Basir Ghori, told AFP.

A rocket fired by the militants meanwhile killed a woman and a shopkeeper the same day, he said.

Locals said some people gathered for a demonstration afterwards, demanding an end to fighting between soldiers and insurgents because of the risks to civilians.

In another attack blamed on the insurgents on Sunday, a roadside bomb planted by "terrorists" killed an Afghan soldier in the eastern province of Paktya on Sunday, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Posted by: Fred 2009-06-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=271004