An Afghan policeman killed nine of his colleagues in the eastern province of Paktika, police and provincial government officials said Friday.
Paktika provincial police chief Dawlat Khan said the shooting happened in the early hours in Yahyakhil district.
“A local policeman named Asadullah was persuaded by the Taliban insurgents to carry out the firing inside the security check post,” he told AFP.
“First he poisoned his colleagues and then later at 3:00 am in the morning today, he shot dead nine of his colleagues.”
Mokhlis Afghan, spokesman for the governor of Paktika province, confirmed the attack, adding that one member of the local police had fled and two others had been arrested.
The Afghan local police are militias that form part of the government’s security forces but do not come under the national police set-up.
The Taliban, who have been fighting an insurgency against Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies for more than a decade, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a text message sent to AFP: “Last night, a mujahid fighter attacked a security check post. As a result, he killed nine puppet local policemen.
“The mujahid fighter has managed to escape and joined the Taliban ranks.”
It is unusual for Afghan soldiers and police to attack their fellow nationals.
But the killings come in the wake of a series of attacks by Afghan security personnel against members of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which have seen 17 foreign troops die so far this year.
Those deaths represent more than one in six of the 93 ISAF fatalities since January 1.
The effort to train Afghan troops to take over security for the entire country ahead of ISAF pulling out by the end of 2014 is the cornerstone of the West’s strategy.
But the so-called “green on blue” attacks have frayed relations between the allies on the ground, with NATO troops ordered to adopt strict new security precautions to counter the threat.
NATO commander General John Allen issued orders in recent weeks calling for some advisers to carry weapons and for NATO units to designate one team member as a “guardian angel”, who remains armed and on alert for possible fratricidal attacks, officials have said.
