A turncoat Afghan police officer is believed to have killed 10 of his colleagues at their post in south-central Afghanistan, paving the way for Taliban militants to raid the facility and steal weapons and ammunition, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
Someone poisoned 10 police officers by contaminating their food at the post in the Chinartu district of Uruzgan province and then shot them dead Monday night, provincial government spokesman Dost Mohammad Nayab said.
Taliban militants took over the post after the killings. Arriving Tuesday morning, Afghan forces engaged the militants in a firefight, and the insurgents fled with weapons they stole from the post, Nayab said. It wasn’t immediately clear in anyone was killed or injured in the firefight.
Investigators believe that an Afghan police officer working at the post killed the 10 others and later fled with the Taliban fighters, Nayab said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said on Twitter that the group took over the Chinartu police post Monday night and seized nine AK-47s and three rocket launchers, among other weapons.
The Taliban are the only known active insurgents in Uruzgan, Nayab said.
The Taliban have waged an insurgency since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the group from power in late 2001.
The U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2014, leaving the Afghan military to lead the fight against the Taliban and other Islamist groups opposed to the government. The NATO troops that remain in Afghanistan are there in a training and support role.
