Police officers among 14 dead in Logar battle

PUL-I-ALAM (Pajhwok): Four policemen, including three officers, and 10 insurgents were killed during a fierce gun-battle near the capital of central Logar province on Thursday, officials said.

The clash broke out in the Mandokhel area, one kilometre south of Pul-i-Alam, the provincial capital, on the Kabul-Gardez highway at around 5pm, Logar police chief Brig. Gen. Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

 Taliban insurgents stormed a police post in the area and ambushed police reinforcements on their way to the clash site, sparking a fierce gun-battle, he said.

Three police officers, including the Pul-i-Alam first police district deputy chief, and a constable were killed and four policemen were injured in the ambush, he said.

Ten attackers were also killed and their weapons seized and several others were wounded, the police chief said.

Afghan National Army personnel and quick reaction force members had reached the scene and the clash had ended, Ishaqzai said.

The attack had been repulsed and the situation brought under control, he said, adding a search operation was underway in the area.

The governor’s spokesman, Din Mohammad Darwish told Pajhwok Afghan News at the scene that it was a pre-planned attack that left some police officers dead.

A security official, wishing anonymity, said three quick reaction force members had also been killed and 10 others wounded.

A resident of the area, Habibullah, said the clash was still underway, with both sides using heavy and light weapons. He said residents stayed indoors under the hail of bullets.

He said he had no information about casualties because no one could go out of their homes.

ma/nh