SIX COPS KILLED AS TALIBAN STRIKES AFGHAN POLICE BASE

GARDEZ : At least six policemen were killed and dozens wounded when six gunmen and a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said.

It took Afghan security forces most of the day to kill the last gunmen, who had barricaded themselves in a kitchen in the compound, according to police.

The attack, claimed by the Taliban, began when one bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at the gate of the police headquarters in Gardez city, capital of Paktia province, said Najib Danish, a spokesman for the interior ministry.

The gunmen stormed the gate after the blast, with at least two quickly killed by police. The others held out against Afghan special forces that had responded to the attack, he said.

Paktia police chief Toryalai Abdani put the toll at six police killed and 12 wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with its spokesman reporting more than 100 police were killed and wounded. The terror group often exaggerates casualty numbers in attacks against government targets and security 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 dozen men in recent weeks.

About sixty soldiers were killed on their bases, mostly at night, in the southern province of Kandahar alone around the end of May.

The insurgents are also targeting the international coalition supporting Afghan forces.

Seven US soldiers were injured on Saturday in an insider attack by an Afghan soldier.

The Taliban did not directly claim the attack but described the soldier, who was killed, as a “patriot.”

The Pentagon is set to announce it is sending another 4,000 US troops to the country to counter the increasingly aggressive insurgents.