Taleban militants stormed a government building in southern Afghanistan and killed up to nine Afghan policemen in a two-hour gunbattle before fleeing, officials said yesterday. "A group of Taleban attacked the district headquarters of Deshu on Saturday morning and in the exchange of fire nine Afghan policemen were killed and three were injured," district commissioner Haji Mohamed Rahim told AFP. "Taleban were in control of the district (headquarters) for two hours and then we managed to force them out." There was no word on the militants' casualties. The battle took place in Helmand province's Deshu district, 700 kilometers south of the capital, Kabul. Provincial intelligence chief Dad Mohammad Khan told AFP that only four policemen were killed during the gunbattle on Saturday. |