KABUL: The Taliban captured a key district in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province on Thursday while in the country’s north, an officer turned his rifle on sleeping colleagues, killing nine policemen, officials said.
A police spokesman in the northern Kunduz province said the insider attack took place at a security post and that the assailant escaped under the cover of darkness.
The spokesman said the assailant had gone over to the Taliban. He also claimed that the attacker and the Taliban gathered the bodies of the dead policemen and set them on fire.
Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack. But he denied that a policeman had been involved or that the Taliban had burned the bodies of the policemen.
Thursday’s fall of Sangin district, once considered the deadliest battlefield for British and US troops in Afghanistan, comes amid the insurgents’ year-long push to expand their footprint in the Taliban heartland of Helmand.
Since the withdrawal of foreign NATO combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, and with only a smaller, US-led advise and training mission left behind, Sangin has been seen as a major tests of whether Afghan security forces can hold off advancing Taliban fighters.
Mohammad Rasoul, the district’s police chief, said the Taliban overran Sangin center early on Thursday morning.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, also issued a statement claiming the Taliban’s capture of Sangin.
Rasoul said that the district headquarters had been poorly protected and that at the time of the Taliban siege, only eight policemen and 30 Afghan soldiers were on duty.
Afghan security forces were now amassing nearby for a full-scale counter-attack in a bid to retake Sangin, Rasoul added.
In Kabul, a lawmaker from Sangin, Mohammad Hashim Alokzai, urged the military to move quickly to retake the district, saying its fall could have devastating consequences for Helmand.
An aid group, menwhile, said nearly a third of all children in Afghanistan are unable to attend school, leaving them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment by armed groups, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.
Save the Children said more than 400,000 Afghan children are expected to drop out of school this year due to growing instability and the forcible return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, adding to the 3.7 million already out of school.
More than 600,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan in 2016 and around 1 million more are expected in 2017 after the tightening of regulations by authorities there.
Save the Children said over half of all returnee children do not attend school, often working on the streets because their parents cannot find jobs.
A police spokesman in the northern Kunduz province said the insider attack took place at a security post and that the assailant escaped under the cover of darkness.
The spokesman said the assailant had gone over to the Taliban. He also claimed that the attacker and the Taliban gathered the bodies of the dead policemen and set them on fire.
Zabiullah Mujahed, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack. But he denied that a policeman had been involved or that the Taliban had burned the bodies of the policemen.
Thursday’s fall of Sangin district, once considered the deadliest battlefield for British and US troops in Afghanistan, comes amid the insurgents’ year-long push to expand their footprint in the Taliban heartland of Helmand.
Since the withdrawal of foreign NATO combat troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, and with only a smaller, US-led advise and training mission left behind, Sangin has been seen as a major tests of whether Afghan security forces can hold off advancing Taliban fighters.
Mohammad Rasoul, the district’s police chief, said the Taliban overran Sangin center early on Thursday morning.
Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, also issued a statement claiming the Taliban’s capture of Sangin.
Rasoul said that the district headquarters had been poorly protected and that at the time of the Taliban siege, only eight policemen and 30 Afghan soldiers were on duty.
Afghan security forces were now amassing nearby for a full-scale counter-attack in a bid to retake Sangin, Rasoul added.
In Kabul, a lawmaker from Sangin, Mohammad Hashim Alokzai, urged the military to move quickly to retake the district, saying its fall could have devastating consequences for Helmand.
An aid group, menwhile, said nearly a third of all children in Afghanistan are unable to attend school, leaving them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment by armed groups, early marriage and other forms of exploitation.
Save the Children said more than 400,000 Afghan children are expected to drop out of school this year due to growing instability and the forcible return of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, adding to the 3.7 million already out of school.
More than 600,000 Afghans returned from Pakistan in 2016 and around 1 million more are expected in 2017 after the tightening of regulations by authorities there.
Save the Children said over half of all returnee children do not attend school, often working on the streets because their parents cannot find jobs.
