Taliban fighters ambushed a convoy of Afghan military and police forces today, killing 10 of them, including the district chief of police, in the western Herat Province. Officials say two Taliban were also slain in the ambush.
Officials say that the troops were looking for Taliban who had reportedly set up a roadblock in the area earlier in the day, but the roadblock was gone by the time they got there and the troops ended up getting ambushed which searching.
Officials termed the incident the single deadliest for Afghan security forces in the western half of the country so far in 2012, and points to an increased Taliban interest in treating Karzai government forces as a primary target.
The multi-hour gunbattle adds further questions to the massive but ill-trained Afghan military’s ability to fight off battle-hardened Taliban forces, which have been growing in influence nationwide as NATO troops continue to insist that the 11-year-long war in making “progress.”