Taliban kill 14 police officers in southern Afghanistan

Taliban fighters dressed in police uniforms and driving in a police car attacked a checkpoint in southern Afghanistan's restive Helmand province on Wednesday, killing 14 police officers, an Afghan official said.

The attack, the latest in a stepped-up campaign by the Taliban targeting Afghan forces and government institutions, underscores the tenaciousness of their insurgency even as the group is plagued by infighting and rivalries after last month's announcement of the death of its longtime leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

In Wednesday's attack, Taliban fighters drove through the checkpoint in the district of Musa Qala and attacked the police officers from behind, according to Bashir Ahmad Shaker, a provincial council member in Helmand.

Helmand Gov. Mirza Khan Rahimi said two other policemen were wounded in the attack, which he called a "conspiracy against the police."

Rahimi said the police were caught unprepared because an earlier telephone call informed them to expect a visit from police colleagues. "But the visitors were attackers in police uniforms who opened fire and killed them," he said, adding that an investigation is underway.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusouf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack and said the group captured eight policemen.

In Kabul, Afghanistan's intelligence agency claimed on Wednesday that Pakistan was involved in last week's attacks in the country's capital that killed almost 50 people and wounded hundreds.

Hassib Sediqi, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, said that Afghan authorities have confirmed "Pakistani military interference" in the attacks last Friday.

"Special circles of the Pakistani military were behind all those attacks," he said, claiming the Pakistanis were working through the Haqqani network, a hard-line armed group in Afghanistan.

There was no immediate reaction from Islamabad, which has consistently denied such accusations from Kabul. Pakistan wields considerable influence over the Taliban, who have waged a 14-year war against Kabul.

Three attacks last week shocked Kabul in their scope and brutality. A truck bomb exploded early Friday morning, flattening a city block and killing 15 people and wounding 240 as they slept, authorities said.

Hours later, a suicide bomber killed at least 20 cadets outside a police academy, and 10 more people died in an attack on a military camp used by U.S. Army special forces. On Monday an attack near Kabul's airport killed five people.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

"Suicide bombers are receiving their training in Pakistan. There are factories in Pakistan that are making bombs and explosives, which are used to kill and wound civilians in Afghanistan," Sediqi said.

He said, "It has been proved that the Taliban" are not led by Afghans but are getting "their orders form the Pakistani military officers."

Earlier on Wednesday, Afghan authorities recovered the bodies of four men kidnapped in the country's east last week, officials said, and at least eight others have been newly abducted.

The four victims, found in the Nawur district near the border with Pakistan, were shot, said Asadullah Ensafi, the deputy chief police of Ghazni province. He said three of the men were Hazara and one was a Sunni Pashtun.

The Hazara are a largely Shia ethnic minority in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan. The group has been targeted by the Taliban and other Sunni groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ensafi said insurgents kidnapped at least eight Hazara on Tuesday. In February, 30 Hazara men were abducted in Zabul province, south of Ghazni. Last month 11 Hazara were kidnapped in northern Baghlan province, which also has been plagued by attacks since the Taliban stepped up their war against Kabul in April.

Meanwhile, fighting in Baghlan between Afghan forces and the Taliban has killed two police officers, said Jaweed Basharat, the provincial police spokesman. He said fighting in the Dahana-i-Ghori district began on Tuesday. The Taliban, who regularly exaggerate their claims, issued a statement, claiming a much higher police casualty figure.

The Associated Press