Suicide bomber kills 12 police as Taliban vow attacks over Ramadan

 AFP/Kandahar

A suicide bomber killed 12 policemen in Afghanistan yesterday when he blew himself up inside a police station, officials said, as Taliban rebels vowed to fight through the holy month of Ramadan.

Another suicide strike killed two people at a border crossing with Pakistan, and the Islamist militants rejected reports they would hold a ceasefire during the Muslim month of fasting that starts on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The 12 officers were killed when the bomber targeted a police station used to patrol the main road from Uruzgan province to neighbouring Kandahar, through one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions.

“He detonated his explosives in a battalion station in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan,” Abdullah Hemat, the Uruzgan governor’s spokesman, said.

“The bomber, who was on foot and wearing a suicide vest, blew himself up while the policemen were having lunch. As a result, 12 policemen were killed and five others wounded,” he said.

The Taliban, who claimed responsibility for the attack, separately issued statement denying any Ramadan ceasefire, saying that “enemy” intelligence agents had hacked an email account and sent out a fake message.

“In the holy month of Ramadan, jihad has a big reward, and we will continue our war against the enemy by continuing our attacks,” Zabihullah Mujahid, an insurgent spokesman, said.

The Taliban, who have fought a fierce insurgency against the US-backed Kabul government since 2001, have not previously halted attacks during the month of Ramadan.

Earlier yesterday, another bomber detonated himself in the southern province of Kandahar at a border crossing with Pakistan, killing two people including a senior Afghan police commander.

“A suicide bomber wearing a vest of explosives crossed the border into Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district this morning and blew himself up,” Javed Faisal, spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said.

“A top border police commander and a civilian were killed, and eight others, including two border police and civilians were wounded.”

The Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing is a key route from the Pakistani city of Quetta, which gives its name to the Quetta shura Taliban council, and Kandahar, the insurgency’s heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials say many suicide attackers who strike in Afghanistan are trained in Pakistan, where the Taliban have rear bases and where some of its leaders are based.

Islamabad denies allowing the Afghan Taliban to operate from inside Pakistan and says it will do everything to facilitate Afghan attempts to broker a peace deal to end the Afghan conflict.

In recent weeks, Taliban insurgents have accelerated their campaign of suicide attacks and roadside bombs against Afghan officials and Afghan and US-led Nato troops.

The ministry of interior said that 300 police officers were killed in the last month, as Afghan security forces increasingly take on frontline duties fighting the Taliban.

On Tuesday, a Taliban suicide attack killed nine people in Kabul including four Nepalese, one Briton and a Romanian.

Around 100,000 Nato troops based in Afghanistan are handing over security responsibility to Afghan soldiers and police before the international combat mission ends next year.

A Taliban office that opened in the Gulf state of Qatar on June 18 to start peace talks enraged Afghan President Hamid Karzai by styling itself as an unofficial embassy for a government-in-exile.

Karzai broke off bilateral security talks with the Americans and threatened to boycott any peace process altogether.

The Taliban have consistently refused to hold peace talks with the Afghan government and label Karzai a US puppet.