Taliban kill 22 Afghan police in multiple attacks

Kabul: Taliban insurgents, some wearing night-vision goggles, killed 22 Afghan policemen in separate attacks on checkpoints over the weekend in the latest blow to the country's beleaguered security forces.

Militants wearing the googles launched a pre-dawn assault on a police post in Khan Abad district in the northern province of Kunduz today and killed 13 officers, said provincial police chief Abdul Hamid Hamidi.

Only one policeman survived the attack, he told reporters.

The attackers destroyed the checkpoint and stole a Humvee, according to district governor Hayatullah Amiri.

Yesterday Taliban fighters killed nine policemen and wounded two others stationed at checkpoints in Ghazni, the capital of the southeastern province of the same name, said provincial governor's spokesman Mohammad Arif Noori.

Twelve of the militants were killed and four wounded, Noori said.

The Taliban claimed the attacks in statements to media.

The insurgents have stepped up attacks on security installations as they seek to demoralise police and troops and steal equipment to fuel the insurgency.

The militants have acquired "dozens" of armoured Humvees and pickup trucks in recent years, defence ministry deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh told AFP recently.

Some of those vehicles have been used in suicide attacks on police and military bases with devastating effect.

Afghan forces have suffered soaring casualties since NATO forces ended their combat mission in late 2014.