ISLAMABAD - Officials in Afghanistan confirmed Monday a Taliban prisoner has killed at least eight policemen, including three senior officers, after covertly seizing an assault rifle from a guard at the detention facility in southern Zabul province.

The incident happened while security guards were offering evening prayers late Sunday at the Shar-e-Safa district jail, a police officer told VOA. Ghulam Jilani said the assailant sprayed the unarmed group of personnel with bullets. The officer promised to provide more details later in the day.

A security official in Shar-e-Safa, disclosed to VOA on the condition of anonymity that Afghan forces swiftly engaged the armed prisoner and the firefight with him continued into Monday morning.

The official suspected the Taliban detainee had managed to seize weapons from other slain officers, preventing prison guards from ending the siege, though the assailant’s fate was still not known.

The latest security forces' casualties came a day after the Afghan ministers of defense and interior acknowledged that Taliban battlefield attacks in recent weeks have inflicted some of the worst casualties on Afghan National Army (ANA) and police forces.

While briefing the upper house of parliament or Senate on Sunday, Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak disclosed that "daily, 30 ANA and police personnel get killed.”

Afghan Defense Minister Tariq Shah Bahrami told the Senate session that in the last one month alone, the ANA has suffered 1,231 casualties, including 513 fatalities.

Around 14,000 Afghan security forces were killed between April 2016 and July 2018, according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Insurgents have since intensified battlefield attacks around Afghanistan, inflicting more losses and capturing new territory.

Meanwhile, security forces raided a Taliban-run detention center in the central-eastern Maidan Wardak province late Sunday and rescued eight prisoners, mostly personnel of the Afghan Special Forces.

General Wais Samimi, the provincial police commander, told VOA the rescue operation also killed 40 insurgents, including their shadow district chief.

Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujuahid, claimed Afghan and U.S. forces jointly conducted the raid and it targeted a civilian compound. He went on to assert that the security action in the Jaghato district killed 14 civilians, including women and children. The Taliban’s claims are often inflated.

Afghanistan’s Pajhwok news agency quoted villagers as telling it that foreign forces were part of the raid and those killed in it were all civilians.

It was not possible to independently verify the claims. </s> The Taliban killed 30 policemen in an overnight attack on an Afghan police outpost in western Farah province, officials said Thursday. The onslaught on the outpost in Farah’s district of Khaki Safed began late on Wednesday and continued for more than four hours, according to provincial council member Dadullah Qani. Lawmaker Samiullah Samim said in Kabul that the Taliban killed all 30 policemen – members of both the national and local police force – who were deployed at the outpost, including the district police commander, Abdul Jabhar, AP reports. Retaliatory airstrikes killed 17 Taliban fighters but the insurgents still managed to get away with a large amount of weapons and ammunition, he said. </s> Eight police officers, all members of the same family, were killed in northern Afghanistan on Friday after a colleague working with the Taliban drugged and shot them at a checkpoint, police and government officials said.

No group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack but a spokesman for Faryab provincial police told AFP the suspected assailant had "fled back to the Taliban".

The victims, four regular police and four auxiliary officers, "were drugged by their colleague who then opened fire on them at a police checkpoint in the Almar district" of Faryab province, provincial police spokesman Abul Karim Yoresh told AFP.

District governor Saleh Saleh confirmed that all eight of the police officers were members of the same family.

Local media reported that the suspected assailant police officer had joined the Taliban a year ago.

A similar incident happened in September when two Afghan soldiers opened fire on their sleeping colleagues in their barracks in the northern province of Kunduz.

On Wednesday the US government's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said in a report that the death rate among Afghan troops and police soared last year as the Kabul government's overall control of the country declined significantly. </s> The Latest: Afghan official says Taliban kill 9 in Kandahar

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments (all times local):

An Afghan official says Taliban insurgents attacked police checkpoints in southern Kandahar province, killing nine police.

Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor in Kandahar, says Tuesday that seven other police were wounded late Monday in the attack in Arghistan district.

Zia Durrani, provincial police spokesmen, says 25 Taliban were killed and 15 others wounded in the battle.

Arghistan is one of the violate districts of Kandahar close to Pakistani border.

An Afghan official says an Islamic State suicide bomber has killed 20 people in northern Afghanistan, including a Taliban commander.

Abdul Qayuom Baqizoi, provincial chief police of northern Sar-i-Pul province, said the attack Tuesday took place as village elders met with Taliban officials in the area.

In northern Afghanistan, Taliban and the Islamic State group have been waging bitter battles in recent days. As many as 100 insurgents from both the Taliban and Islamic State have perished in recent battles, said Baqizoi.

Provincial council chief Mohammed Noor Rahman said the explosion occurred in a mosque as a funeral was taking place.

The area is remote and it was impossible to reconcile the differing accounts.

An Afghan official says at least 54 people, including security personnel and civilians, have been released from a Taliban prison in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Tuesday the prisoners were freed after a commando unit raided the prison late Monday night in Musa Qala district.

Zwak said there were 32 civilians, 16 police, four soldiers and two military doctors who had been locked up by the insurgents.

He said security forces were still securing the area.

The Taliban did not immediately comment on the raid, but the insurgents are in control of the majority of the districts in Helmand, where they have increased their attacks against provincial officials and security forces. </s> By The Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials say the latest Taliban attacks in the country’s central and eastern region have left 13 policemen dead.

Council member Ghulam Hussain Changiz in eastern Ghazni province says the insurgents attacked a police outpost early on Thursday morning in Khugyani district, killing eight policemen, including a district commander.

The attack set of a firefight that lasted for hours until the government sent reinforcements and drove Taliban from the compound. He says the Taliban still managed to confiscate weapons and ammunition.

The Taliban also attacked a police outpost in central Wardak province on Thursday morning, killing five policemen. Police spokesman Hekmat Durrani says three policemen were wounded.

Near-daily Taliban attacks on Afghan security forces have been relentless in recent months.

Copyright © 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. </s> Kabul: Afghan officials say the Taliban have killed 30 policemen in a blistering overnight attack in western Farah province.

Provincial council member Dadullah Qani said on Thursday that the onslaught on the police outpost in the province's district of Khaki Safed began late on Wednesday and continued for more than four hours.

In Kabul, lawmaker Samiullah Samim said the district police commander, Abdul Jabhar, was among those killed.

The Taliban managed to flee with a large amount of weapons and ammunition.

The Taliban have in recent months been staging near-daily attacks across Afghanistan, inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces.

Authorities no longer regularly provide casualty figures but unofficial estimates say about 45 Afghan police or soldiers are killed or wounded daily. </s> ISLAMABAD — Officials in northwestern Afghanistan say a suspected Taliban insurgent has killed at least eight police personnel just days after surrendering and joining the force.

The overnight massacre took place at a security outpost in the Almar district in the province of Faryab.

Area police spokesman Karim Yorosh told VOA Friday the gunman took all the weapons and ammunition before fleeing the post. The victims mostly belonged to the same family, he added.

The Taliban fighter reportedly had surrendered to the local police force 15 days ago and returned to the insurgent ranks after carrying out the attack.

District Governor Mohammad Saleh Saleh told TOLO TV the killer poisoned the security men before shooting them.

An insurgent who surrenders and promises to quit violence before a local tribal council, or jirga, is allowed to stay in his village or work for security forces. Kabul’s official reconciliation policy also encourages insurgents to quit violence and become part of national politics and institutions.

The Taliban is active in several districts of Faryab and recently launched a major assault on the provincial capital, Maimana, to try to capture it. But Afghan security forces defeated the attempt, forcing insurgents to retreat to their nearby sanctuaries.

Afghan security forces suffered a record number of casualties while battling the Taliban last year. They lost around 7,000 personnel while more than 11,000 were wounded, according to the U.S. military.
• Afghan Provincial Governor Confident US Marines Will Help Contain Taliban
• U.S. Won’t Let Afghanistan To Become Safe Haven For Terrorists </s> Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Helmand attacked a checkpoint with silenced weapons and hand grenades early on Tuesday killing 12 policemen and stealing weapons and ammunition, officials said.

But a provincial official said that it could be an insider attack as one of the guards was still missing.

"An investigation is ongoing to find out if someone from inside has defected to the Taliban and paved the way for this crime," he said.

The attack, in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, underlined the threat facing Afghan security forces in the opium-producing province, where they struggle to match well-equipped Taliban fighters who now control several districts.

The police killed in the attack had been pulled back from the southern district of Khanshin district which security forces abandoned last year.

"The Taliban attacked a guard with silenced guns and then entered the check post," Helmand deputy police chief Haji Gulai told reporters.

"They attacked other policemen with hand grenades and killed all of them. They later took their weapons and ammunition and escaped." he said.

In a separate incident, another 12 policemen were killed in the Marjah district of Helmand after an hour-long gunbattle, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.

Taliban fighters now control most of Helmand, including areas in Lashkar Gah. British and US forces suffered their heaviest casualties of the war in the province in years of fighting following the removal of the Taliban in 2001.

Afghan security forces now control less than 60 percent of the country, according to US estimates, with the Taliban in control of about 10 percent and the remainder contested between government and insurgent forces. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments (all times local):

An Afghan official says Taliban insurgents attacked police checkpoints in southern Kandahar province, killing nine police.

Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor in Kandahar, says Tuesday that seven other police were wounded late Monday in the attack in Arghistan district.

Zia Durrani, provincial police spokesmen, says 25 Taliban were killed and 15 others wounded in the battle.

Arghistan is one of the violate districts of Kandahar close to Pakistani border.

An Afghan official says an Islamic State suicide bomber has killed 20 people in northern Afghanistan, including a Taliban commander.

Abdul Qayuom Baqizoi, provincial chief police of northern Sar-i-Pul province, said the attack Tuesday took place as village elders met with Taliban officials in the area.

In northern Afghanistan, Taliban and the Islamic State group have been waging bitter battles in recent days. As many as 100 insurgents from both the Taliban and Islamic State have perished in recent battles, said Baqizoi.

Provincial council chief Mohammed Noor Rahman said the explosion occurred in a mosque as a funeral was taking place.

The area is remote and it was impossible to reconcile the differing accounts.

An Afghan official says at least 54 people, including security personnel and civilians, have been released from a Taliban prison in southern Helmand province.

Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Tuesday the prisoners were freed after a commando unit raided the prison late Monday night in Musa Qala district.

Zwak said there were 32 civilians, 16 police, four soldiers and two military doctors who had been locked up by the insurgents.

He said security forces were still securing the area.

The Taliban did not immediately comment on the raid, but the insurgents are in control of the majority of the districts in Helmand, where they have increased their attacks against provincial officials and security forces.
A Taliban prisoner kills eight policemen after seizing their weapons. The condition of the Taliban gunman is unknown.