Afghan police officers man a security checkpoint in Kabul, Afghanistan, on July 13, 2010. File photo by Hossein Fatemi/ UPI |
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TARINKOT, Afghanistan, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- An Afghan police officer suspected of collaborating with the Taliban drugged and shot to death at least 10 fellow officers in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province Tuesday, according to officials.
A spokesman for the provincial governor said the officer took his colleagues' weapons and left in a stolen vehicle after setting fire to their outpost in the Chinarto district. Police are searching for the suspect, whom they believe to be a Taliban infiltrator.
According to the BBC, more than 100 foreign troops and scores of local policemen have been killed in insider attacks in Afghanistan.
Voice of America quoted Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi as providing a conflicting account, saying the outpost fell to an insurgent attack from the outside.
Afghan security officials reportedly confirmed that fighting was taking place in the Chinarto district after the Taliban staged an overnight assault.
The attack comes after a similar incident in the same province last week, when four Afghan policemen, also suspected of collaborating with the Taliban, shot and killed nine colleagues before defecting to the insurgents with their weapons and ammunition.
The Taliban have inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan security forces after NATO forces handed the combat mission to local police and military units in late 2014.
The militants captured the Sangin district of Helmand province last month and assaulted the northern town of Kunduz in September.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last month said foreign ministers agreed to keep 12,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2016 to assist local security forces.
During unofficial talks Sunday in Qatar between Taliban representatives and Afghan government mediators, the Taliban made a list of demands that they said must be met before they will consider joining formal peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in Afghanistan.
The demands included official recognition of its political office in Doha, a release of prisoners, removal of Taliban leaders from a United Nations travel blacklist and a complete withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
