Taliban Attack On Afghan Police Checkpoint Kills 17

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Afghan officials say a Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in the country's east has left 17 people dead.

The details of the predawn attack are unclear, and officials said they were investigating how the militants breached security at the post in Ghazni Province.

Provincial Governor Musa Khan Akbarzada said the attackers killed 10 police officers and seven civilians inside a police checkpoint in Andar district.

Two other provincial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all victims were policemen and had been poisoned before being shot dead.

"The New York Times" meanwhile quoted unnamed officials as saying the victims had been drugged by militants posing as policemen.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed the attack for the militants in a phone call to French news agency AFP.

Earlier in the day, a suicide bomber in the Afghan capital, Kabul, detonated his explosives near a bus carrying Afghan army personnel, wounding at least six soldiers and four civilians.

Based on reporting by AFP and "The New York Times"

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