Nine police officers killed in central Afghanistan

Security officials in Afghanistan say at least nine police officers have been killed by assailants in police uniforms in the country’s volatile central province of Uruzgan.

Dost Mohammad Nayab, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said the incident took place at a police checkpoint on Sunday evening, explaining that the assailing gunmen later stole the weapons of those officers killed before fleeing to join the Taliban militant group.

“A preliminary investigation shows that up to four policemen carried out the attack. An operation is underway to arrest those responsible,” Nayab said.

The Taliban have not yet claimed responsibility for the act of violence.

Meanwhile, Afghan army troopers backed by security forces have killed more than two dozen Taliban militants and wounded over a dozen others in a series of clean-up operations across the strife-torn country.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that 23 militants were killed and 14 others injured in a series of operations carried out in the provinces of Helmand, Kapisa, Kunduz, Logar, Paktika and Zabul.

The statement added that six Taliban members were also arrested during the offensives, without providing any information about potential casualties among soldiers and security forces.

Afghan soldiers also confiscated light and heavy weaponry and defused several rounds of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

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