Taliban Kill Six Afghan Police, Kidnap Plot Foiled

Reuters ^ | 7/7/04 | Sayeed Haqiqi

[TexKat]

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban guerrillas killed six policemen and wounded four others on Wednesday during a foiled attempt to kidnap four Turkish engineers in western Afghanistan, police said.

The officers were killed in a clash in the Chakab area of Farah province where police prevented the kidnap of the foreign engineers who were working on a highway project, local police officer Shah Mohammad said.

"The Taliban plan was either to kill or kidnap the four Turkish engineers and the police went to help them and it was then they were attacked," Mohammad said.

In a separate incident, Afghan National Army troops killed one of a group of four or five militants running an illegal vehicle checkpoint in Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province, Major Rick Peat, a spokesman for the U.S. military said.

He said the other militants fled.

The attack in Farah was the second on police guarding a highway in the province in less than two weeks.

In late June, gunmen in military uniforms killed seven officers in an ambush in Farah's Del Khak district, an attack police said was the work of the Taliban or drug traffickers.

The province lies near the border with Iran, a key smuggling route for Afghanistan's massive narcotics output.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the radical Islamic militia carried out Wednesday's attack. He said 10 officers were killed.

Ousted from power by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, the Taliban has declared a holy war against the Afghan government, foreign troops and aid and reconstruction workers.

Hundreds have died in militant attacks this year despite the presence in the country of some 20,000 U.S.-led troops and 6,500 NATO-led peacekeepers. The violence has raised concerns about security for elections expected later this year

(Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin and David Brunnstrom in KABUL)