Up to 10 people were killed in an attack on a police checkpoint in south-west Afghanistan today, according to the Taliban. Dozens of suspected Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades staged the attack in the Khashrow district of Nimroz province, about 120 miles south-west of Kandahar, said Hakim Latifi, a spokesman for the radical group. Earlier reports, quoting a governor in the province, said the casualties were four policemen. "Maybe more than four have been killed, but I know of only four," Kareem Baravi, the governor of Nimroz, said.
| "Four, ten... Let's say more than zero..." |
Authorities have stepped up security in Nimroz in recent months to trace suspected al-Qaida fugitives and fighters of the Taliban militia believed to be hiding there. The Taliban has regrouped and is increasingly targeting police and soldiers who are cooperating with the government. The violence has been concentrated in the south and east of the country, near the Pakistani border. But there have also been incidents in the north.
| Not very many at all, though... |
The attack follows a bombing yesterday in Mazar-e-Sharif, the main northern city. The bomb exploded in front of the office of the French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, injuring two people, the Afghan military said. Two employees of the agency have been detained as part of the investigation.
| The solution to that problem would be not to hire anybody who speaks Pashto... |
Last Thursday, police removed a bomb from a ditch near a UN office in Mazar-e-Sharif and destroyed it. |