Taliban kill 8 Afghan policemen: local governor

KUNDUZ: Taliban overran a police post in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing eight officers, the provincial governor said, in an attack that underscores the militia's widening insurgency.

"Taliban attacked a police post and killed eight policemen. There were nine people in the post, one of them survived though he was injured," governor Mohammad Omar said.

Residents said some areas of Kunduz have come under Taliban control, and describe recruitment drives that exploit high unemployment and disillusionment with a largely corrupt state security apparatus.

Nato and the United States have 141,000 troops in the country, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as efforts to quell the insurgency, especially in the south, escalate.

Most deployments as part of US President Barack Obama's 30,000-strong troop surge are heading to southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, though others are heading north to reinforce small bases run by Nato allies.

Two Spanish paramilitary police along with a Spanish interpreter were shot dead by an Afghan policeman at a training session on a Nato base in northwestern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

The deaths brought to 462 the number of foreign troops to die in the Afghan war this year, according to an AFP tally based on a county kept by the independent icasualties.org website.

The alliance is trying to build up the Afghan police force and army to enable the country to take on responsiblity for national security and allow foreign troops to withdraw.

Obama has said he wants to begin drawdown in July 2011, though military commanders say the withdrawal will be gradual and conditional on the competence of Afghan security forces.