A Taliban ambush of a police convoy in western Afghanistan left 20 policemen dead, officials said yesterday as minority Shiite residents in the capital, Kabul, took to the streets for the second day to protest the arrest of local militia commander.
The ambush took place on Sunday afternoon in Farah Province, provincial council member Dadullah Qaneh said.
Four policemen, including the deputy provincial police chief, were wounded in the attack near Lash wa Juwayn District.
The convoy was on its way to the district to introduce newly appointed district police chief when it came under attack, council member Abdul Samad Salehi said.
The newly appointed chief was killed, Qaneh said.
The Taliban, who over the past few years have taken over nearly half of Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of near-daily Taliban assaults on Afghan military and security forces throughout the country.
The Taliban view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Western puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it.
Meanwhile, demonstrators blocked all roads in the western section of Kabul for a second day yesterday, protesting the arrest of Alipoor, who leads a Shiite militia in the western Ghor Province and who goes by one name.
It was not clear what he is charged with, but state-allied militias are often accused of extortion and other mafia-like behavior.
On Sunday, hundreds clashed with police during the protest. Three policemen were shot and wounded and another 20 were hit by stones thrown by the protesters, who torched two police checkpoints.
“I can hear sporadic sound of shooting form the area,” Afghan lawmaker Nasrullah Sadeqizada said of yesterday’s protest.
Sadeqizada lives near the area and spoke to reporters over the telephone.
Mahobullah, another resident form the area who also uses only one name, said that hundreds of protesters were carrying posters of Alipoor, shouting: “Alipoor is innocent” and demanding that the commander be set free.
During a previous attempt in June to arrest Alipoor, security forces in Ghor clashed with his followers, leading to the deaths of seven civilians and four policemen.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land. “We are staring at each other for, maybe, a whole minute,” Sture said on Monday. “I’m trying to think what’s in its mind.” The bird then attacked Sture five more times on Thursday last week, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. The same eagle is believed to be responsible for attacks on three other people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway
RSS