Eight killed in Afghanistan rebel attack

Some 2,000 Afghan security forces rushed to an eastern province today after dozens of suspected Taliban rebels wearing army uniforms killed eight police and soldiers in an attack on a region that has been largely peaceful in recent months, officials said.

As dozens of army trucks carrying reinforcements made their way to Nuristan province, a roadside bomb exploded, killing a soldier and wounding five others, Defence Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammed Saher Azimi said.

By the time the troops reached the site of the attack in Nuristan, the militants had already fled into the nearby rugged mountains that stretch into neighbouring Pakistan, Interior Ministry spokesman Latfullah Mashal said.

He said that dozens of rebels had assaulted a police post in the region yesterday, sparking a gun-battle that lasted several hours and left four soldiers and four police officers dead.

A local official said the attackers were wearing uniforms of Afghanistan’s new US-trained army.

Nuristan has been spared much of the violence that has killed more than 900 people since a major upsurge in attacks in March across other eastern provinces and the country’s south. But, Nuristan does border Kunar province, where militants killed three US commandos and shot down a special forces helicopter a month ago.

Afghan and American officials have warned that attacks by Taliban-led rebels are likely to increase ahead of legislative elections on September 18 – the next key step toward democracy after a quarter century of war.

Elsewhere, gunmen shot dead an election official as he walked home in southern Helmand province’s Lashkar Gah city yesterday, provincial administrator Ghulam Muhiddin said.

However, Bronwyn Curran, a spokeswoman for a joint United Nations-Afghan government electoral commission, said she could not confirm an election worker had been killed.

Meanwhile, suspected Taliban rebels attacked Afghan forces in south-eastern Paktika province, sparking a gunfight that left one insurgent wounded and led to the seizure of a weapons cache, the US military said.

Afghan forces also detained two of the militants, who had opened fire on them on Monday, the US military said in a statement.

Afghan police pursued the attackers into a nearby compound, where they seized a cache of bomb-making materials, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenade parts and machine gun and AK-47 assault rifle ammunition, it said.

In neighbouring Zabul province on Monday, a local Taliban commander and 29 other guerrillas surrendered to Afghan authorities as part of a government amnesty, said a spokesman for Zabul’s governor, Ali Khail.

The rebels also handed over ammunition and weapons, including AK-47 assault rifles, hand grenades and rockets, the spokesman said today.