AFGHANISTAN: Up to 100 Taliban guerrillas attacked a district office in the Afghan province of Zabul yesterday, killing eight policemen and wounding two others, a local official said. The latest attack by a resurgent movement occurred in Zabul's Arghandab district.
The official said 100 Taliban fighters were involved, who burned down the district office and destroyed four vehicles. He had no figure for Taliban casualties, though "people said they took dead bodies with them".
Government forces had reoccupied the area after dawn.
The attack was just the latest in a series by the Taliban movement, ousted by US-led forces in late 2001 for sheltering the al-Qaeda network blamed for the September 11th attacks.
The period since August has been the bloodiest in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, with more than 300 people killed.
The dead have included Afghan aid workers, government soldiers, policemen and US troops from the 11,500-strong US-led force still searching for Taliban remnants and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The attack yesterday follows an escape by 41 Taliban prisoners from the main jail in the adjoining province of Kandahar.
Among the escapees was Mawlavi Abdullah, brother of former Taliban defence minister Obaidullah, and a commander named Aziz Agham who officials say mounted a number of guerrilla attacks in the months before his capture earlier this year.
Afghan and US forces pursuing Islamic militants accuse Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban until the September 11th attacks, of providing sanctuary for terrorists.