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AFGHANISTAN-UNREST
8 police killed in checkpoint attack in N. Afghanistan
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Jan 3, 2019 (BSS/Xinhua) – At least eight
Afghan police personnel were killed and two others wounded after Taliban
militants attacked a security checkpoint in northern Baghlan province
overnight, a local official said Thursday.
“The clashes which claimed the lives of eight police and injured two others
occurred after several hundred militants stormed the checkpoint named Safar-
ba-Khair with guns and rocket propelled grenades along Baghlan-Samangan main
road,” Safdar Mohseni, an official of the provincial council, told Xinhua.
Several militants were also killed and wounded during the gun battle, but
their number could not be exactly specified as the militants evacuated their
casualties after the fighting.
The militants also overran the security post and took all weapons and
ammunition, he said.
The province, 160 km north of Kabul, has been the scene of heavy clashes
between security forces and Taliban militants for long.
Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan as the Taliban insurgency spreads
from its traditional strongholds in the south and east to the once peaceful
region in the north, where Taliban have been recruiting from among the youth.
The Afghan security forces’ casualties have risen since the beginning of
2015 when Afghan soldiers and police assumed full responsibilities of
security from the U.S. and NATO troops.
On Tuesday night, five army soldiers were killed and six others wounded
after a Taliban tunnel bomb struck an army base in southern Kandahar
province.
BSS/XINHUA/FI/ 1226 hrs