KABUL, March 26: Militants mounted two attacks against police in Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least nine officers and wounding six others.

Washington has pushed to significantly increase the number of Afghan police and improve their training as key part of a revised US strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, aimed at countering Taliban militants.

Mr Obama has already pledged to send 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban and could send even more as part of the administration’s new strategy.

Many of the troops will be sent to the south, where militants attacked a police checkpoint on Thursday, killing nine policemen, the interior ministry said.

It blamed “enemies of Afghanistan”, a common reference to Taliban militants.

Militants also attacked a police convoy in central Ghazni province on Thursday, wounding six policemen, regional police spokesman Iqbal Gul Sapan said.

The interior ministry said the police were transporting a militant prisoner at the time, adding that two civilians were wounded in the attack.

Police often have fewer weapons and less training than Afghan and international troops, leaving them vulnerable to such attacks.

Richard Holbrooke, the American envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, said on Saturday the new US strategy for Afghanistan would focus on improved recruitment and training of the national police force, aiming for a “very significant increase” in police numbers that would free up Nato and US troops to concentrate solely on military actions to help stabilise the country.

Better training also would be aimed at rooting out widespread police corruption, which has turned many Afghan citizens against the force.

Corruption also has been a significant issue at the highest levels of government, with reports that relatives of President Hamid Karzai have profited from their family connections — charges they denied.

Mr Karzai said on Thursday the international community’s allegations of corruption against his government were false and politically motivated.

He outlined his own savings and assets to head off any corruption allegations that might be leveled against him in the run-up to presidential elections later this year.

He said he had about $10,000 in a bank in Frankfurt, Germany, and his wife had jewelry worth about the same amount. He said his salary is only about $500 per month.

“I have no private car, no land, no garden, no house,” Mr Karzai told a news conference.—AP
Tags: