Kabul, Afghanistan – Suspected Taliban militants ambushed a convoy of police officers driving through a dangerous section of the country’s major highway Wednesday, killing six, while suicide bombers in the east killed three other officers, officials said.
Elsewhere, militants fatally shot two officers in the south, where four suspected Taliban members were killed in a clash with NATO and Afghan forces.
The ambush came along the Kabul-Kandahar highway, a ribbon of road that connects Afghanistan’s two major cities. Long stretches of Highway 1 run through areas controlled by Taliban militants.
Six police were killed and five wounded in the ambush in the southern Zabul province, said Gen. Yaqoob Khan, the provincial police chief.
Police are frequent targets of militant attacks, in part because the force has less training and is not as well equipped as the Afghan army.
In the east, insurgents attempted a double suicide bombing at Khost’s provincial police station. One bomber blew himself up and killed at least three officers. A second bomber who then ran into the police headquarters was shot and killed, said Mohammad Wali Shah, the provincial police chief.
Violence has spiked the past several weeks. More than 3,300 people have died in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on numbers from Afghan and Western officials.
