Northern Afghan Governor, 11 Police Killed in Attacks

Taliban Takes Credit for Qaleh Zal Governor's Killing

by Jason Ditz, July 11, 2010

The district governor for Qaleh Zal in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz Province was assassinated today in a roadside bomb attack. The driver of his car was also killed, and two other passengers in the car, including his son, were wounded.

Taliban spokesmen were quick to claim credit for the attack, one of many attacks seen in the Kunduz Province in recent months. The province was once one of the strongholds of the Northern Alliance, but as the war has gone on it has become increasingly welcoming to the Taliban.

A pair of other incidents in the area also left 11 police killed. Six were killed in an attack on a border post in Kunduz, with officials blaming a pair of Taliban-linked police for the ambush. Five others were killed in nearby Badakhstan Province.

The attacks are just the latest in a string of record violence across the nation, increasingly taking its toll not just in the southern provinces and the area around Kabul, but even in the far north.

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