The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in eastern
Paktika province, which has long been a refuge for extremists from around the
world. It is one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where NATO and
Afghan forces fight daily against the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Taleban
faction closely tied to Al-Qaeda.
The attackers, who were disguised in police uniforms, made
it through three security gates, said Nawab Waziry, the head of Paktika's
provincial council. One attacker detonated his explosives inside the police
headquarters building, while the other blew himself up near the entrance about
20 minutes later.
"The site was covered with blood," Waziry told The
Associated Press after visiting the scene. He said an intelligence report
several weeks ago warned that suicide attackers wearing police uniforms would
strike soon. "Even with all this information, police were not able to
prevent this attack," he said.
The blasts killed at least 12 officers and wounded 16, said
Gen. Daud Andarabi, spokesman for the regional police commander in southeastern
Afghanistan.
A NATO service member also was killed in a bomb attack in
eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, but it was unclear if there was any connection
to the Paktika bombing because the military coalition did not give any further
details.
Although NATO forces have poured troops into the southern
provinces of Kandahar and Helmand and have been making progress in rolling back
the Taleban, fighting has continued in the eastern provinces where the Haqqani
network holds sway.
The area, about 150 km south of Kabul, borders the Pakistani
region of North Waziristan and has been the target of numerous drone strikes
against the Taleban, Al-Qaeda and the forces of the Haqqani network.
Saturday's attacks come amid a series of setbacks in efforts
to negotiate an end to the nine-year war. The ongoing violence and
intransigence of Taleban militants has led Western officials to advocate more
strongly this year for a negotiated solution that would allow insurgents to
have some sort of role in the government.
But in an embarrassing turn of events, a man initially
believed to be a high-ranking Taleban representative was exposed this week as
an impostor.
Afghanistan's intelligence service issued a statement
Saturday saying it had discovered the man posing as Mullah Akhtar Mohammad
Mansour was a fake and blocked him from entering Afghanistan from Pakistan for
a planned meeting with Afghan government officials.
"He was about to come to Afghanistan. Then during a
meeting with the intelligence service near the border, it was made clear that
he was not Mansour, so the intelligence service did not bring him into
Afghanistan for the negotiations," the statement said.
But several newspaper reports said the impostor met with
Afghan and NATO officials three times — including once with President Hamid
Karzai — before they discovered he was not Mansour. He was allegedly paid to
attend.
