Afghanistan - shoot-out

Ten police killed in clash with security guards

Article published on the 2009-06-29 Latest update 2009-06-29 17:40 TU

Soldiers from the Afghan National Army keep watch in Kandahar city, 29 June 2009.
(Photo: Reuters)

The police chief of the province of Kandahar in the south-west of Afghanistan was killed on Monday in a shoot-out between police and private security guards. At least five policemen were shot dead in the clash that took place in the city of Kandahar.

The Afghan guards went to the attorney general's offices to free a prisoner when his staff called for police help, said interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. "The Kandahar police chief came to the area to assess the situation himself."

"As he arrived, these armed men opened fire and started a clash as a result of which the police chief, the police criminal investigation chief and two other policemen have been killed," he said. Five more policemen were wounded, he added.

Bashary could not immediately say if the men who killed the police chief had managed to escape or take the prisoner they were after.

The head of the Kandahar provincial council, Ahmad Wali Karzai, said Kandahar police chief Mutaiullah Khan Qateh and the criminal investigation police chief were killed in a shootout between Afghan private security guards and police.

The guards had been trained by US soldiers, said Karzai, a brother of President Hamid Karzai.

The president demanded the "immediate handover by the coalition forces to the Afghan government of the private security guards involved in the killing of Kandahar province security officials," his office said, giving the death toll as five.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that none of its troops or those from the separate US-led coalition were involved. "There have been Afghan police deaths but there was no ISAF or coalition involvement at all," Lieutenant Commander Chris Hall said.

Qateh, believed to be in his mid-50s, held the rank of general. He was appointed Kandahar police chief about a year ago after a Taliban attack on Kandahar city jail that allowed hundreds of inmates to escape.

A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, claimed men from his militia had deliberately sparked the clash between the Afghan forces but this has not been confirmed. The Taliban have in the past falsely claimed involvement in incidents or exaggerated clashes.