Taleban ‘helped’ Afghan police officer drug, shoot dead 17 colleagues

KABUL: An Afghan police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead yesterday with the aid of the Taleban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called “insider,” or green-on-blue, attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taleban.
The attacks have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taleban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police (ALP) outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni.
“An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taleban and they together shot them all,” the chief police detective for Ghazni, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters.
Seven of the dead were new recruits still undergoing training, officials said.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The rapidly growing ALP program is an American-designed initiative designed to recruit local men as security officers for their area. The force has been beset by allegations of abuse and widespread corruption.
In September, Afghanistan suspended the training of new ALP recruits following a spate of insider attacks on foreign soldiers.
Afghan convoy attacked, 10 hurt
In another incident, a suicide bomber slid under a bus full of Afghan soldiers and blew himself up yesterday, wounding 10 in another brazen attack that underscores the Taleban insurgency's ability to hit even highly guarded areas in the capital, Kabul.
The man, wearing a black overcoat, approached the bus purposefully in heavy morning snow as soldiers were boarding, set down his umbrella and went under the chassis as if to fix something, according to a witness.
Watching from across the street, office worker Ahmad Shakib said he thought for a moment the man might have been a mechanic.
“I thought to myself, what is this crazy man doing? And then there was a blast and flames,” that engulfed the undercarriage, he said. “It was a very loud explosion. I still cannot really hear.”