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Afghan Taliban Blast Way Into Police Post, Killing Chief and Officers Taliban Breach Afghan Police Posts, Killing Dozens
(about 5 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — A provincial police chief and more than 20 officers were killed in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday when Taliban gunmen in explosive vests entered their headquarters by blowing through its walls with a bomb-laden vehicle, officials said. KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 46 Afghan police officers, including a senior general, were killed in two separate Taliban attacks on Tuesday, officials said, highlighting the heavy cost paid by the country’s police force amid the Afghan war’s escalating violence.
Nearly 200 people were injured in the attack on the station in Gardez, the capital of Paktia Province, according to local officials who said they expected the toll to rise The attacks, in the neighboring eastern provinces of Paktia and Ghazni, were similar in the tactics used — and in the devastation left behind. Both involved insurgents taking vehicles captured from Afghan forces, including Humvees paid for by the United States military, packing them with explosives and detonating them at the compounds before the militants stormed in.
“The casualties get higher and higher,” said Hedayatullah Hamidi, the province’s health director. “It is not the final list.” Afghan and Western officials have long expressed concern about the high number of casualties among Afghan forces against a resurgent Taliban, even after the United States doubled its air support under a new strategy by President Trump. The Afghan government has not disclosed how many police officers and soldiers have been killed this year, but officials say the deaths rate is the same or higher than in 2016, when more than 6,700 members of the security forces were killed and another 12,000 were wounded.
He said that 193 wounded and 23 dead, including civilians and police officers, were taken to Paktia Provincial Hospital alone. The deadlier of Tuesday’s attacks occurred in Gardez City, the capital of Pakita Province, leaving 41 people dead and more than 150 wounded. Gen. Murad Ali Murad, Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister, said that 21 police officers had been killed in the attack, including the province’s police chief, Gen. Toryalai Abdyani, and 48 others wounded. Twenty civilians were killed and another 110 wounded, he said.
The Taliban released a statement saying that they had detonated two vehicles — first a truck, and then a Humvee — before their fighters stormed the police compound. Gen. Assadullah Shirzad, head of the police for the eastern zone, said as many as 11 attackers were involved. It was the second time the compound had been attacked in a similar fashion this year. The last attack, in June, left five police officers dead and 18 wounded.
Habibullah Sarab, 16, who lives nearby, said he rushed to the site after hearing a big explosion, which shattered the windows of his home. Gen. Assadullah Shirzad, the head of police in the southeastern zone, said the insurgents had first blown up a large truck outside the police headquarters, destroying the walls. Then three other vehicles used as bombs — two police pickup trucks and one Humvee — entered the compound and were blown up. Eleven militants stormed the compound after the explosions, he said.
“I saw dozens of people lying on the ground under debris of the explosion,” he said, adding that most were civilians who had been waiting outside the Police Headquarters to get new passports. The casualty toll changed throughout the day, and some Afghan officials feared that it could rise further. “The casualties get higher and higher,” said Hedayatullah Hamidi, the province’s health director. “It is not the final list.”
Calling the devastation “very bad,” he said: “Some people were burned by the fire of the explosion; some others were lying in their blood.” Habibullah Sarab, 16, who lives nearby, said he had rushed to the site after hearing a large explosion that shattered the windows of his home.
He added that he saw burning vehicles in the street in front of the headquarters. “I saw dozens of people lying on the ground under debris of the explosion,” he said. Most, he said, were civilians who had been waiting outside the police headquarters to get new passports.
Among those killed was Gen. Toryalai Abdyani, the province’s police chief, a member of the provincial council said. Calling the devastation “very bad,” he said: “Some people were burned by the fire of the explosion. Some others were lying in their blood.” He said he had seen burning vehicles in the street in front of the headquarters.
“The car, packed with explosives, managed to come all the way inside, next to the police chief’s room,” said Abdul Raouf Zadran, a council member. Wali Tabasum, the Paktia police spokesman, said he had survived because he had been sent out on a work errand 20 minutes earlier. But General Abdyani, a father of seven, was killed at his desk, Mr. Tabasum said.
Wali Tabasum, the Paktia police spokesman, said he survived because he had been sent out on a work errand 20 minutes earlier. Hours before the Gardez attack, in the predawn darkness, the Taliban attacked the Andar district center in Ghazni Province. After setting off smaller explosions, the attackers drove an explosive-laden Humvee into the district center. The explosion there was so large, officials said, that it destroyed not only the adjacent district governor’s and police compounds but also as many as 30 residential buildings.
But as for General Abdyani, “He was killed at his desk,” Mr. Tabasum said. General Murad, the deputy interior minister, said the attack had killed 25 police officers and five civilians, and wounded 10 police officers.
The attack was one of at least two Taliban attacks on police stations on Tuesday. In the southern province of Ghazni, militants also attacked a security compound, killing at least seven police officers. Amanullah Kamran, a member of the Ghazni provincial council, said the situation there was “worse than Helmand and other battleground provinces.”
The Afghan Interior Ministry said the assailants in the Paktia attack were armed with heavy weapons and suicide vests. “Now Andar is under control of the Taliban,” he said.
Other officials denied that the district had fallen to the Taliban, saying that Afghan forces had fought through much of the morning and that reinforcements had arrived.
In western Farah Province, however, local officials and residents said the Taliban had taken over another district, adding to their growing presence in the province a time when they have even threatened the suburbs of the provincial capital city.
Dadullah Qani, a member of the provincial council in Farah, said the Taliban had attacked the Shabikoh district on Monday night, killing five police officers and overrunning the district center.
“The central government’s lack of attention will collapse the entire province to the Taliban,” Mr. Qani said. “If we had received air support last night, the district would not have fallen.”