26 dead in ongoing siege in Afghanistan

Kandahar, May 25

Taliban gunmen have surrounded a police compound in the volatile southern province of Helmand after killing 19 policemen and seven soldiers in an ongoing siege, a senior police officer said today from inside the compound.

Napas Khan, the police chief in the Naw Zad district, told The Associated Press by telephone that the insurgents had advanced to within 20 metres of the compound after seizing police vehicles and weapons and blocking all roads out of Naw Zad.

"We need an immediate response from the government," Khan said.

He said the attack started at before dawn today when the insurgents overran multiple police checkpoints across the district.

"They destroyed or captured most of our checkpoints and now they have reached our police headquarters," Khan said.

"They are mostly firing at us from the hills overlooking our compound."

As Khan spoke, gunfire and shouting could be heard in the background.

Helmand has long been a heartland for the Taliban, who profit heavily from opium produced in its fertile river valley.

Government forces launched an operation against the insurgents in March, in the hope of reducing the impact of the Taliban's annual warm weather offensive. Since that offensive was launched, however, in late April, attacks across the country have intensified, spreading government forces thin.

As well as the time-worn guerrilla-style tactics of fight-and-run, the insurgents have also stepped up suicide attacks and, in some areas, targeted assassinations and kidnappings.

Also today, a suicide truck bomb attack and a separate roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan killed 11 people and wounded dozens more, as the Taliban clashed with supporters of the Islamic State group in the west, officials said.

Governor Asif Nang said the Taliban have been clashing with rival insurgents claiming allegiance to the IS group for three days in the western Farah province, leaving at least 10 Taliban fighters and 15 IS supporters dead. He provided no further details.

The clashes provide the latest indication of a small but growing Islamic State presence in the country.

Afghan and foreign officials differ over the extent to which the extremist group, which rules large parts of Syria and Iraq, is able to operate in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been waging war against the Western-backed government for more than a decade. (AP)