An Afghan police officer invited two “guests” to a checkpoint in the Zabul Province, on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, and the three of them attacked and killed eight policemen at the post, before fleeing in a police vehicle.
Afghan officials are still investigating the incident, but the Taliban has claimed credit for the attack, the latest in a growing number of so-called “green-on-green attacks” in which uniformed Afghan security forces kill other Afghan security forces.
In many cases, this has been the result of Taliban infiltration, with the group making a point for years to have fighters join the security forces, whether to steal equipment or to launch attacks such as this one. Struggles with Afghan recruiting has meant very little screening, and fairly easy access for the Taliban.
At the same time, some such incidents haven’t proven to be the result of infiltration, but rather of low standards among recruits, with hot-tempered troops sometimes just snapping and killing a number of other security forces over an argument.