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KANDAHAR, July 10: Six Afghan police were found beheaded after being captured by Taliban fighters in an attack that left a total of 10 police dead and three wounded in southern Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.
Their convoy had come under attack during a routine patrol on Saturday in the Bahramcha area of Deshu district in Helmand province, 690 kilometers south of Kabul.
“Four police were killed in the two-hour exchange of fire and six other missing police were later found beheaded with their heads atop their chests after a long search for them,” said border district commander Mohammed Rasoul.
Helmand’s governor Mullah Shir Mohammed alleged that the assailants had crossed the border from Pakistan.
“The Taliban attacked our border police in four vehicles,” said Mohammed. “They came from Pakistan and escaped back into Pakistan and left the beheaded bodies close to the border.”
Suspected Taliban rebels also killed a pro-government cleric and his wife in the third deadly attack on pro-government clergy in two months.
The attackers burst into cleric Agha Jan’s home in Sharan, the capital of violence-plagued Paktika province, on Saturday, said provincial governor Gulab Mangal.
12 KILLED IN BLAST: At least 12 Afghan soldiers were killed and two wounded in Paktia province after their vehicle ran over a land mine on Sunday, the provincial deputy police chief said in Khost.
The incident occurred as Afghan and US forces were on their way from the provincial capital Gardez to Paktia province’s Janikhail district, some 100 kilometers southeast of Kabul.
It is unknown if any US troops were killed or wounded in the blast, Deputy Police Chief Ghulam Nabi Salim said.
“I have no information if there were any American soldiers among the dead or the injured, but we are investigating the incident,” he said.
US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O’Hara said he had no information on US casualties.—AFP
