Taliban briefly overrun east Afghanistan district

CTVNEWS

Taliban briefly overrun east Afghanistan district

The Associated Press Published Monday, November 1, 2010 7:51AM EDT

Private security contractors guard a part of a route as NATO supply trucks drive past in the province of Ghazni, south-west of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Rahmatullah Naikzad)

Text:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban briefly overran a district seat in eastern Afghanistan, torching government buildings and capturing police officers after an intense gunfight, officials said Monday.

The government was back in control of Ghazni province's Khogyani district headquarters a few hours later, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary, adding that three rooms in the government headquarters had been burned and a vehicle damaged. He did not have any information on casualties.

Local police chief Mohammad Yasin, who wasn't there during the attacks, said government buildings were captured and set on fire.

All the police guarding the district headquarters were either killed or taken prisoner, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, and their weapons and vehicles were confiscated.

He put out a press release later saying the Taliban had left the district after damaging the headquarters.

A NATO spokesman said he did not have any details of the incident.

In recent months, Ghazni has become one of the most unstable provinces in Afghanistan. Insecurity around the country shot up after NATO and Afghan troops began pushing into the Taliban heartland of the south in July.

Parliamentary elections held in September did not take place in most of Ghazni because of the insurgent threat.

Afghanistan has more than 350 districts. Around 10 are under direct Taliban control but they have a presence in many more.

In an unrelated incident in southern Helmand province, NATO and Afghan troops killed 15 insurgents in the course of a two-day battle over a bomb-making factory in Reg-i-Khan Nishin district that ended Sunday, the coalition said.

NATO troops eventually seized and destroyed a stockpile of explosives that would have been enough to build more than 2,000 bombs, Monday's statement said.

Also in Helmand, two Afghan women were found shot to death, said provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi. They had been running a small organization helping other women set up businesses before their bodies were found in Naway-e-Barakzayi district.