Kabul - Taliban militants overran a district in
southern Afghanistan Friday after four policemen were killed in a
blast in the same region, officials said.
Hundreds of Taliban militants overran Nawah district in southern
Ghazni province on Friday morning after the local authorities and
police forces left the district, said Mohibullah Khepilwak, the
district administrative chief.
'We were under severe pressure by the Taliban militants for the
past several days,' Khepilwak told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by
phone from the province, adding, 'We had asked the government to send
reinforcement, but nobody was sent.'
'In order to avoid casualties, we have tactically withdrawn from
the district and as we get reinforcement we will recapture the
district,' he said, adding that according to the information he had
received from the area, the Taliban burned the headquarters for the
district.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid also confirmed that their
forces had captured the district without any resistance by the
'Afghan and foreign forces.'
The Taliban also claimed that their forces captured Marja district
in southern Helmand province after several days of fierce fighting,
another rebel spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi, said.
But Mohammad Hussain Andewal, provincial police chief of Helmand
province said that police only left two posts in the district on
Thursday, while the rest of the district was under control of
government forces.
Zemaria Bashary, interior ministry spokesman also confirmed that
police forces left two of the posts in the district, adding, 'After
some 15 police forces were killed in the past two weeks, we decided
to leave those two posts in the district.'
Taliban militants captured and controlled Musa Qala district in
the same Helmand province for around 10 months last year before the
Afghan and British forces drove them out.
Meanwhile, four policemen were killed and five others were wounded
when their vehicle was struck by a roadside mine in Gerishk district
of the southern province of Helmand on Thursday evening, Andewal
said.
He said that police forces were patrolling in the area when the
attack happened.
Taliban militants took responsibility for the attack in a
statement posted on the rebel website, saying that the explosion
killed seven police officers.
US-led coalition forces also said in statements on Friday that
their forces killed three suspected Taliban militants in two separate
clashes in southern Kandahar and Helmand province.
More than 2,600 people - mostly insurgents, but including Afghan
and international forces as well as civilians - have been killed in
violence so far this year.
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