Taleban help kill 17 in police shooting

An AFGHAN police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead with the aid of the Taleban, police have said, in the latest green-on-blue attack involving Afghan security forces and the Taleban.

The killings yesterday, 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,” said Mohammad Hassan, the chief police detective for Ghazni.

Seven of the dead were new recruits still undergoing training, officials said.

The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack in Andar district in a text message from spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

The rapidly growing ALP programme 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.

Residents of Andar took up arms last spring and chased out insurgents. The villagers don’t readily embrace any outside authority, be it the Taleban, the Afghan government or the Nato military coalition.

In more violence, a suicide bomber slid under a bus full of Afghan soldiers and blew himself up in Kabul, wounding ten in an attack that underscored the insurgency’s ability to attack in the heavily guarded capital.

Kabul police said at least six soldiers and four civilians were wounded.