Police posts attacked in Nuristan

JALALABAD (PAN‘s Chitral district, on Tuesday, sparking a fierce gun-battle, officials said.

Clashes were still ongoing after nearly 400 insurgents attacked police posts in Chitrash and Koshtal areas, 18 kilometers from Paroon, at 9am, police chief, Shamsur Rahman Zahid said. Fierce gun-battles were ongoing between the attackers and police, he said, adding two policemen have so far been injured.

He said they had called for sending police reinforcements and air support, but so far no action had been taken.

Police personnel from Paroon and Wama district had been called in to assist their colleagues in the fight with the large group of insurgents, Zahid said.

He claimed the attackers included Chechens, Arabs and Waziristanis. They were laced with heavy weapons, the police official said, adding insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and small arms on the police reserve base, located 18 kilometres from the provincial capital.

He said there were no Afghan army or coalition forces in the area and that they were trying to send police reinforcements from other districts.

Taliban-led insurgents are active in the mountainous province, where they captured the Waigal district this year.

Tuesday’s assault came two days after more than two dozen Taliban fighters, including suicide bombers, attacked several government buildings in the southern city of Kandahar.

Governor Jamaludin Badr said that additional police forces were deployed to the area, adding the insurgents had rockets and other heavy weapons.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the fighters launched simultaneous attacks on four security posts near Paroon city. Four policemen were killed and six others were wounded in the attacks, he said. He acknowledged injuries to only two fighters. Mujahid denied foreigners were among the fighters.

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