News / Afghanistan

Four police officers shot dead in northwest Afghanistan

Wednesday, 03 February 2016 6:08 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 03 February 2016 8:15 AM ]

Afghan security personnel stand guard near the site of an attack at the entrance to a police base in Kabul, Afghanistan, on February 1, 2016. © AFP

At least four police officers have lost their lives when nine men clad in an Afghan police uniform opened fire on them in the country’s northwestern province of Badghis, security officials in Afghanistan say.

Colonel Mohammad Saber, a local police official, said the incident took place at a police checkpoint in the Qadis district of the province on Tuesday, when the gunmen fatally shot the policemen.

Saber added that the armed man later stole the slain officers’ weapons before fleeing to join the Taliban militant group.

On January 26, ten policemen were killed after a man wearing an Afghan police uniform shot them in the Chinartoo district of the beleaguered central province of Uruzgan.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid later claimed responsibility for the act of violence, saying that nine policemen were killed after his fellow militants overran the police outpost in Chinartoo.

A week earlier, nine policemen were shot dead in the same Afghan province by at least four men disguised in police uniform.

Local officials said the Taliban infiltrator then stole their weapons and fled the scene.

Afghan forces kill 33 Taliban militants

Meanwhile, Afghan army troopers backed by security forces killed more than 30 Taliban militants and wounded several others in a series of clean-up operations across the strife-torn country.

Members of the Taliban militant group are presented to the media in Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 5, 2016. © AFP

The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that 33 militants were killed and nine others injured in a series of operations carried out in the provinces of Baghlan and Nangarhar.

The statement added that eight 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 improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity more than 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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