TALIBAN KILL 5 AFGHAN SOLDIERS

Kabul, June 18: Taliban attackers stormed a regional police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing five officers and injuring 22 people in an assault launched by a suicide bomber.

Of the seven attackers involved, one blew himself up in a car at the entrance to clear the way for the others to rush into the building, the office of the Paktia provincial governor said in a statement announcing the end of the raid.

Special forces killed four of the insurgents but two held out for several hours, it said, adding that nine police and 13 civilians were wounded in addition to the dead. The attack on the base in the centre of the city of Gardez — part of the Taliban’s all-out assault during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramzan — was launched at 6:00 am. The base houses both regular policemen and police special forces.

Since they launched their spring offensive in late April, the Taliban have been mounting lethal assaults on positions of the Afghan army and police, who have lost several men in recent weeks. About 60 soldiers were killed on their bases, mostly at night, in Kandahar alone around the end of May.