‘Taliban kill 30 security guards’

Afghan police said yesterday that 30 security guards had been killed in a day-long clash with Taliban fighters in one of the most volatile regions of the war-ravaged country.

The deaths come just days after President Hamid Karzai ordered all private security firms in the country to disband by the end of the year and their employees to either leave the country or, if eligible, join the police force.

The fighting lasted all day Thursday in the Sangin district of southern Helmand province, where the Taliban insurgency is concentrated, a senior police officer said.

“The Taliban attacked and during the fighting, which lasted the whole day, 30 guards were killed, around 15 were injured and some others were taken by the Taliban,” deputy provincial police chief Kamaludin Sherzai said.

Officials earlier said they believed that around 12 guards had been killed when heavy gunbattles broke out between insurgents and guards working for a road construction company in Sangin. Helmand provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said that a dozen bodies were evacuated to a hospital in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

“We know that they were killed during yesterday’s fighting with the Taliban. We don’t know whether they are guards or workers,” he said. The Taliban claimed involvement in Thursday’s attack.

“We launched an attack on the road construction company along the Sangin and Gereshk road,” Zabihullah Mujahed, a rebel spokesman, said by telephone, referring to the region where authorities said the fighting took place.

“We took more than 30 checkposts along the road and killed more than 50 guards,” he said, speaking from an undisclosed location. The Taliban are known to exaggerate the impact of their operations. Helmand, along with neighbouring Kandahar, is one of the most unstable regions of Afghanistan, where Taliban-linked insurgents have been fighting the Kabul government and international forces for almost nine years.