Hundreds of Taliban attack police post

By Mirwais Afghan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Hundreds of Taliban
guerrillas firing rocket-propelled grenades attacked a police
station on Monday in southwestern Afghanistan, amid heightened
violence in the south before a NATO deployment.

The Taliban suffered heavy casualties in a raid on the
police station in a remote district of western Farah province
before retreating, deputy provincial police chief Sayed Agha
Saqib said.

Separately, Taliban guerrillas killed two local employees
of international aid agency World Vision, in neighboring Ghor
province, an official from the region said, and a car bomb
wounded two soldiers from the U.S.-led coalition.

The latest attacks come ahead of next week’s deployment of
NATO-led forces, which will assume security responsibilities
from the U.S.-led coalition in the hardline Taliban’s southern
heartland.

A van parked outside Kandahar city, the former royal
capital and Taliban stronghold, exploded as an army vehicle
carrying Afghan army and coalition soldiers passed, Coalition
spokesman Major Scott Lundy told Reuters.

Their injuries were serious, but not life threatening, he
said. The soldiers’ identities were not given.

Canadian troops form the bulk of coalition forces in
Kandahar.

On Saturday, a suicide car bomber rammed a coalition
vehicle in Kandahar city and as Afghan authorities tried to
push back onlookers and deal with casualties from the blast, a
second suicide bomber on foot blew himself up.

At least five Afghans and two Canadian soldiers were
killed.

More than 1,700 people have been killed in Afghan violence
this year, most of them Taliban, according to U.S. and Afghan
figures. More than 70 foreign troops as well as scores of
civilians have also been killed.

The Taliban have vowed to drive out foreign forces from
Afghanistan and topple President Hamid Karzai’s government.

NATO chiefs toured three southern provinces last week,
including Kandahar, and reported security was satisfactory as
the alliance gears up for what will be its toughest ground
mission ever.

The 26-nation body is already responsible for security in
the relatively peaceful north, west and the capital, Kabul, but
its mission in the south starting next month will be more
dangerous.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Laurence and Mohammad Riza)