Taliban kill police chief in Afghanistan

Taliban militants have assassinated a police chief in Afghanistan’s northern Faryab province, police say. In a separate incident a local security commander was also killed when militants staged an attack on a police checkpoint in the province.

Hawzah News Agency (Kabul, Afghanistan) - Nasim Qateh, the police chief of Faryab’s Almar district, was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car, Karim Yuresh, a spokesman for the provincial police chief, said on Sunday, March ۵.

Yuresh said a second police officer, who was accompanying Qateh, was wounded in the explosion.

The Taliban militant group in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the assassination attack, he said.

Yuresh added that, in a separate incident, a local security commander, Murad Shamal, was also killed when militants staged an attack on a police checkpoint in Faryab Province.

In recent days, there has been a surge in Taliban attacks against government targets.

Last week, at least one person was killed and 35 were wounded in attacks on a police precinct in western Kabul, the capital, and the building of the National Directorate of Security, which is Afghanistan’s intelligence agency.

The rise in Taliban attacks comes as the militant group is preparing for its notorious annual spring offensive in the country.

On Monday night, at least 11 Afghan policemen were killed by a Taliban militant who had infiltrated the ranks of the police force in Lashkargah City, the provincial capital of Helmand.

The Taliban militant group lost its grip over Afghanistan after the US-led military invasion in 2001, but security has not been restored to the country despite the continued presence of foreign boots on Afghan soil.