Taliban kill eight Afghan police

 Updated at: 0030 PST,  Friday, August 27, 2010
 KUNDUZ: Taliban fighters overran a police post in northern Afghanistan Thursday, killing eight officers, a provincial governor said, in an attack that underscores the widening of the insurgency.

The fighters stormed the post in Kunduz city, capital of the province of the same name which has become increasingly restive as the Taliban expand their footprint across Afghanistan's previously peaceful north.

"Taliban attacked a police post and killed eight policemen. There were nine people in the post, one of them survived though he was injured," Kunduz Governor Mohammad Omar said.

Residents say some areas of Kunduz have come under Taliban control, and describe recruitment drives that exploit high unemployment and disillusionment with a largely corrupt state security apparatus.

In the southern province of Uruzgan around two dozen militants and three other police officers were killed during an Afghan government operation that is now in its third day, a police commander said.

NATO and the United States have 141,000 troops in the country, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as efforts to quell the insurgency escalate, especially in the south.
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