DUPE-Suspected Taliban Attack Police Station

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1. 400 Mujahideen Attack Police Headquarters in Afghanistan

Taliban makes it clear that they do not attack civillians

Afghanistan: It's been reported that, Mujahideen in a convoy of trucks attacked a police headquarters in Paktika province, triggering a gunbattle Sunday that killed 22 people, Munafiq officials claimed.

The assault began shortly before midnight Saturday when about 400 Mujahideen traveling in trucks drove across the border from Pakistan and attacked the police headquarters in the province's Barmal district, about 125 miles southeast of Kabul, said provincial Gov. Mohammed Ali Jalali. It wasn't clear how he knew the men came from Pakistan or how there was 400 of them.

It was one of the largest show force in over a year.



Firing rockets, heavy machine guns and grenades, the Mujahideen easily took over the office. About 15 to 20 Afghan police were in the compound at the time and seven of them -- including the district police chief -- were killed, Jalali said. The rest fled.

The Mujahideen held the police station until dawn Sunday before destroying the building.

The US forces with there air power at their disposal were nowhere to be seen.

Previous battles between Mujahideen and Munafiq forces backed by the U.S. invaders usually involves small groups who move around on foot.

"For a large number of people in vehicles to cross the border in daylight requires some guts as well as some coordination,'' a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Jalali said the Mujahideen responsible for Sunday's attack included Taliban and fighters loyal to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He also blamed Pakistan's intelligence service for playing a role in organizing the assault.

The top U.N. envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has asked the Security Council to expand the 5,000 NATO so called peacekeeping force outside the capital ahead of national elections due in June 2004.

But it's only their fear of the Mujahideen that prevented them from doing so right from the beginning.

Taliban makes it clear that they do not attack civillians

SPIN BOLDAK: Afghanistan's Taliban on Friday said that it wasn't involved in a bomb blast this week that killed at least 15 people on a passenger bus in the southern province of Helmand.

"The Taliban are busy ousting Kuffar from Afghanistan and the Taliban are carrying out activities against their agents," Mullah Abdul Rauf, a Taliban official, told Reuters by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.

"The Taliban are not linked to the deaths of innocent people and the Taliban feel sorry for those deaths," he said, referring to the Helmand bus attack which local officials have blamed on them.

Rauf blamed the attack on rival Afghan commanders settling old scores.

Rauf accused non-governmental organizations working in Afghanistan of acting as spies for the United States, adding that attacks on them would therefore be justified. But he did not specifically claim responsibility for the deaths on Wednesday of two Afghans working for the Afghan Red Crescent Society. Their vehicle was ambushed to the southwest of the capital and three members of the group were also injured.