A turncoat Afghan police officer is
believed to have killed 10 of his colleagues at their post in south-central
Afghanistan, paving the way for Taliban militants to raid the facility and
steal weapons and ammunition, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
Someone poisoned 10 police officers by
contaminating their food at the post in the Chinartu district of Uruzgan
province and then shot them dead Monday night, provincial government spokesman
Dost Mohammad Nayab said.
Taliban militants took over the post
after the killings. Arriving Tuesday morning, Afghan forces engaged the
militants in a firefight, and the insurgents fled with weapons they stole from
the post, Nayab said. It wasn't immediately clear in anyone was killed or
injured in the firefight.
Investigators believe that an Afghan
police officer working at the post killed the 10 others and later fled with the
Taliban fighters, Nayab said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid,
said on Twitter that the group took over the Chinartu police post Monday night
and seized nine AK-47s and three rocket launchers, among other weapons.
The Taliban are the only known active
insurgents in Uruzgan, Nayab said.
The Taliban have waged an insurgency
since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the group from power in late 2001.
The U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan
ended in 2014, leaving the Afghan military to lead the fight against the
Taliban and other Islamist groups opposed to the government. The NATO troops
that remain in Afghanistan are there in a training and support role.
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