3 police killed in internal firing in Afghanistan

Three policemen were killed and seven police officers wounded Wednesday in a shooting incident in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, said the authorities. "Following an argument inside the Khanshin district police station, a firing took place at around 11:00 a.m. local time. As a result three officers were killed and seven others wounded," the district governor Anwar Khan told Xinhua. The district police commander was among the injured, the official said, adding an investigation was launched into the incident in the province, 555 km south of national capital Kabul, the official added. Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, who introduced himself as a Taliban spokesman, told the local media from unknown place that one person loyal to Taliban carried out the firing and killed over a dozen police officers. The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched annual rebel offensive in April against Afghan government forces and more than 87,000 NATO-led troops stationed in the country. Earlier on Wednesday, five Taliban fighters were arrested in provincial capital Laghkar Gah A security official told Xinhua that the captured people were involved in the murder of a senior policewoman Nigar, who was killed in a drive-by shooting over the weekend. In an unrelated incident, six militants were killed in NATO drone attack in Chapa Dara district of eastern Kunar province overnight, an army spokesman in the region, Haron Yousufzai, told Xinhua, adding the raid was called in by Afghan security officials. Source: XINHUA