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Taliban attacks police, security offices in Helmand

Taliban suicide bombers have struck inside a police compound and gunmen have attacked intelligence offices in Afghanistan's Helmand province.

Taliban attacks police
File image of Afghan National police soldiers, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. Source: AAP

The Taliban has attacked government offices in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, where the insurgents have been battling government forces for months.

A spokesman for Helmand's governor, Omar Zwak, said gunmen attacked the police headquarters and intelligence agency offices in Gereshk.

He said security forces repelled the attack on the intelligence facility.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in which suicide bombers struck inside the police compound.

Jabbar Karaman, an MP appointed by President Ashraf Ghani to investigate the situation in Helmand, said seven attackers had been killed in the ongoing gunfight with police, as well as three police officers, with an unknown number of civilians caught in the crossfire.

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Earlier reports said four attackers were involved, but the number appears to be much higher.

Fighting has raged across Helmand, a major poppy-growing region, for the past three months, with the insurgents battling government forces and fighting among themselves for control of smuggling routes.

US and British forces saw heavy fighting in Helmand at the height of the 15-year war.

Since the international combat mission drew down in 2014, the Taliban have spread their fight across most of the country, forcing Afghan forces plagued by corruption and incompetence to spread their own assets thin.

US and Afghan military officials have said the army in Helmand is being rebuilt so it can take the fight to the Taliban, something it has not been able to do throughout the war.


2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP



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