Gunbattle at Afghan police station leaves 22 dead
It was part of a disturbing new surge of violence in the country.
The siege began shortly before midnight Saturday when about 400 guerrillas attacked the police headquarters in the town of Barmal in Paktika province, about 125 miles southeast of Kabul, said provincial governor Mohammed Ali Jalali.
The fighters, firing rockets, grenades and heavy machine guns, took over the office and held it until 5am Sunday before destroying the building and retreating amid a gunbattle with police, said police chief Daulat Khan.
The attack was the latest in a wave of violence that has underscored just how unstable Afghanistan still is after the Taliban were toppled in late 2001. Sixty-four people were killed in various attacks last Wednesday, believed to be the single deadliest day in the country since the Taliban's ouster.
Anti-government insurgents a mix of Taliban militants, al-Qaida fighters and supporters of renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are waging a hit-and-run war in much of southern and eastern Afghanistan. The United Nations top envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has asked the Security Council to expand the 5,000-strong NATO -led peacekeeping force to ensure security outside the capital ahead of national elections due in June 2004.
Mr Jalali said more than 20 insurgents and seven police were killed by the time the latest fighting ended Sunday. But Mr Khan said 15 fighters died.
The men said the insurgents took the bodies with them when they fled across the border to Pakistan.
Mr Jalali said the insurgents included Taliban and fighters loyal to Mr Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who heads Hezb-e-Islami, a faction which has called for attacks against foreigners in Afghanistan.
The government wants to disarm militias scattered around the country, but UN disarmament adviser Sultan Aziz said yesterday that the long-delayed campaign might not get started for another six weeks because of a dispute within the Defence Ministry.
