Taliban strikes kill police at record rate

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

KABUL, Afghanistan -- National police are dying at a record rate so far this year and need urgent financial and technical support if a robust Taliban insurgency is to be defeated in distant provinces, the Interior Ministry says.

More than 200 police officers have been killed since late March, with a marked increase in suicide and roadside bombings compared to last year, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told The Washington Times.

"We've lost a big number of our police forces in attacks this year. We are witnessing big casualties," he said.

Police are more vulnerable than Afghan army and international security forces because they are often the only law enforcement on the ground in isolated areas of the southern and eastern provinces, where the Taliban are most active, Mr. Bashary said.

The deadliest recent attack on police was a Taliban ambush last week in southern Zabul province that left 16 officers dead. On Wednesday, a district police chief in eastern Paktika province was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle.

In another incident last Friday, militants attacked a police officer's house in southern Ghazni province, killing five members of his family, according to local officials, indicating that even relatives or those who cooperate with police are targeted.

The spokesman noted that despite some improvements in staffing and training, the police force still has "low capacity and capability" to cope with an enemy that regularly strikes with heavy weapons such as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

"What the police have to face them and resist are AK-47s, and at the maximum, PKMs. That's it," he said, referring to a higher-caliber Soviet-made machine gun.

The combination of poor equipment and low salaries has made it difficult to recruit sufficient numbers of police, especially in risk areas, he said.

Some districts with populations of more than 100,000 have relied on just 25-30 men whose duties are stretched over law enforcement, protecting civilians from roving Taliban militants and drug eradication.