Gunmen kidnap mine clearers in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Insurgents armed with guns and explosives attacked a police station Sunday in Afghanistan’s southern city of Lashkar Gar, wounding two officers and a civilian as gunmen elsewhere kidnapped at least a dozen mine clearers, authorities said.

Nabi Jan Malakhail, the police chief of Helmand province, said at least two insurgents were inside the police station, fighting late Sunday with police who had the building surrounded. One suicide bomber had blown himself up outside the station to allow the others in, he said.

Helmand province is a stronghold of the Taliban, who have been fighting the Kabul government for more than a decade.

Meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped at least a dozen Afghan mine clearers in the eastern province of Paktia, said Gen. Zelmai Oryakhail, the provincial police chief. He said the clearers had been working without police or soldiers protecting them at their own request.

Also Sunday, the United Nations said that Afghanistan’s women are being failed by the country’s justice system as most complaints of domestic violence are dealt with through mediation rather than prosecution. In a report, it said that only 5 percent of surveyed domestic violence cases were resolved through the judicial system, resulting in criminal prosecution and punishment for perpetrators.

The U.N.’s Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, said women often choose mediation to resolve complaints of violence, partly because they lack faith in the justice system.