HERAT CITY, June 10 (Pajhwok Afghan News): The government and Taliban militants have issued conflicting claims about the capturing of a district headquarters and casualties in the northern Badghis province.
Taliban said they had seized headquarters of the Bala Murghab district following a clash that killed at least 10 police personnel. 
However, the provincial government confirmed the killing of only two cops in the overnight attack on the district.
Sayed Zia Waseqi, spokesman for the provincial governor, told Pajhwok scores of militants led by Maulvi Abdul Rahman, Taliban-era governor of Ghor province, attacked the district headquarters from three different directions and set the offices on fire.
He said the militants retreated after resistance from policemen. Six attackers were killed in exchange of fire, said the governor's spokesman.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Muhammad Ayub Niazyar, on the other hand, told Pajhwok 30 suspected militants were killed in the fighting.
He claimed a Taliban commander Mullah Qudoos was shifted by his colleagues in wounded condition from the area.
Purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, however, claimed 10 cops were killed and three were arrested in the last night clash. None of their men was killed or injured in the clash lasted for five hours, said the spokesman.
In the southeastern Paktia province, Taliban destroyed a military vehicle in an attack on a district headquarters last night.
Brig. Gen. Ghulam Destagir Rustamyar, security chief of the province, said the militants stormed headquarters of the Shewak district last night and destroyed a military vehicle. No police personnel were hurt in the overnight attack, he added.
Separately, a senior police officer was gunned down by armed motorcyclists in the southern Kandahar province last night.
Muhammad Daud Salehi, a senior official at the police headquarters, was attacked in the Kabul Darwaza locality of the city at 8pm last night.
Qureshi/Asifkhel/Zabulai

jaa/dk