9 police killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan

Up to nine police personnel were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan overnight Friday, officials said on Saturday.

In one attack, six Afghan Local Police (ALP) members were killed after Taliban militants attacked a security checkpoint in Baharak district of northern Badakhshan province, the provincial government spokesman Nawid Froutan told Xinhua.

The government established the ALP, or community police, in 2010 to protect villages and districts around the country where army and police have limited presence.

Local residents said the attackers arrived by a vehicle before the attack late on Friday night and took weapons and a police vehicle after killing the policemen in the province, 315 km north of Kabul.

In southern Kandahar province, two Afghan National Police were killed after militants stormed a checkpoint in Hajji Kali locality of Khaqriz district while one ALP officer was killed in similar attack in neighboring Maiwand district overnight, Samim Khpalwak, the provincial government spokesman, told Xinhua.

According to Khpalwak several militants were also killed and injured after police repelled the attacks in Kandahar, 450 km south of Kabul.

"The police personnel found weapons and a militant body near the site while militants took with them several killed and injured comrades following the attacks," he said.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since mid April when the militant group launched its annual spring offensive in different places of the militancy-plagued country which had claimed hundreds of lives including militants, security personnel and civilians. Endi