Kandahar, Nov 16 (DPA) Dozens of Taliban fighters stormed a security post in southern Afghanistan and killed eight policemen, a senior provincial official said Monday.
Three other police were injured when the militants attacked their post in Arghandab district of the southern province of Kandahar, the erstwhile birthplace of the Taliban movement, the official said.

“Dozens of Taliban suddenly attacked the Shaheen post from several directions and killed eight policemen,” he told DPA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The militants had come from neighbouring districts of Shah Walikot and Khakrez to conduct Saturday night’s attack, and fled from the area before police reinforcements were deployed.

General Gholam Ali Wahdat, police commander for the southern region, also confirmed the attack, but did not provide any details. He said an investigation had been launched into the incident.

Taliban militants in a statement posted on the rebel website claimed that their fighters killed 12 police during the attack and seized their weapons.

The poorly trained and equipped Afghan police have borne the brunt of the eight-year Taliban-led insurgency in the country.

The 80,000-plus Afghan police force is more vulnerable than the national army and the 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan, because they are equipped with light weapons and thinly stretched throughout the country.

Since 2006, the year that the remnants of the Taliban regime made a dramatic comeback after the ouster of their regime in late 2001, an average of 1,000 police have died each year in insurgent attacks, according to the Interior Ministry.