KHOST, Afghanistan, 25 September 2005 — An insurgent and a prisoner were killed early yesterday after suspected Taleban insurgents stormed a prison and police headquarters in southeastern Khost province, officials said. Suspected Taleban insurgents attacked the district headquarters of Ali-Sher with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, blew up a weapons stock and killed a detainee in police custody. “In last night’s exchange of fire one detainee in police captivity died in the Taleban attack and two soldiers were wounded,” Naqeebullah Asmati, the deputy intelligence director told AFP.
The authorities could not ask for support because the district had lost all communication links with the provincial capital, Asmati said. Provincial police chief Mohammed Ayoob said that police had also killed a rebel overnight in Ali-Sher district. Khost is an insurgency-hit province which shares a long porous border with neighboring Pakistan.
Two US soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb in the south, while there were conflicting reports on the whereabouts of a Taleban commander earlier believed to have been surrounded, officials said. The Taleban failed to disrupt legislative elections last Sunday when voting was largely peaceful across the country but more than a dozen people have been killed in attacks since then.
The US military said the two soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was struck by a bomb while they were on patrol northwest of the southern city of Kandahar on Friday. Eight insurgents fired on the patrol after the blast and three of them were later captured, the US military said in a statement. The two wounded men were in a stable condition.
Further north, in Uruzgan province, Governor Jan Mohammad Khan said a Taleban commander, Mulla Dadullah, who was believed to be surrounded by US and Afghan government forces was now thought to have escaped into neighboring Helmand province. “We have contradictory information about Dadullah. Some people say he has escaped toward Helmand,” Khan said.
The US military said at least 10 insurgents and an Afghan government soldier had been killed in the fighting in Uruzgan that began on Thursday. US air support, including attack helicopters, had been involved against insurgents who used heavy machineguns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
