KABUL, 1 June 2006 — Taleban fighters killed at least a dozen Afghan policemen and abducted up to 40 in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while US-led forces launched an offensive in a nearby province, officials said yesterday.
In the province of Zabul, a senior police official, Mohammad Rasoul, was killed and four other people, including two senior provincial officials, were wounded after the Taleban hit their car with a rocket on Tuesday night.
“They were part of a reinforcement sent to help a group of highway police who had come under Taleban attack on a road of Zabul,” said Yousuf Stanizai, the Interior Ministry spokesman. The raid in Zabul came hours after the Taleban attacked a police base in Chora district of neighboring Uruzgan province and abducted up to 40 policemen, an official in Kabul said on condition of anonymity.
Mullah Ahmad, a Taleban commander, said the militants had taken the police hostage and the Taleban’s leadership would decide their fate. He said militants had killed 12 policemen in the attack before kidnapping the others.
