News / Afghanistan

Ten police officers shot dead in restive central Afghanistan

Tuesday, 26 January 2016 10:57 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 10:58 AM ]

Afghan security forces keep watch during an operation in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province, Dec. 1, 2015. (By AFP)

Security officials in Afghanistan say ten police officers have been killed in an attack by a man clad in an Afghan police uniform in the country’s central province of Uruzgan.

A provincial governor spokesman said the incident took place at a police checkpoint in the Chinartoo district early Tuesday. He said the suspect first drugged the 10 policemen and then fatally shot them.

Officials said an operation had been launched to hunt down the assailant as Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the killing.

The development came only a week after nine policemen were shot dead in the same Afghan province by at least four men disguised as police officers.

Suspected Taliban militants stand handcuffed near seized weapons in the city of Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, Dec. 29, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Meanwhile, Afghan army troops killed a dozen Taliban militants and wounded several others in a series of operations across the country.

Twelve militants were killed and five others injured in a series of operations in the provinces of Faryab, Ghazni, Helmand, Maidan Wardak and Nangarhar, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Seven Taliban members were also arrested, it added.

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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