Taliban briefly overruns Afghan district

KABUL - The Taliban didn't even need to fire a shot. A band of insurgents overran a small rural district in eastern Afghanistan before dawn yesterday, setting government buildings and vehicles ablaze and abducting at least 16 police officers, provincial authorities said.

Some observers warned that the overnight incident in the Khogyani district of Ghazni province was symptomatic of an intensifying Taliban push in parts of the country other than the south, the movement's traditional stronghold, where Western officials have been reporting significant military progress.

Government forces regained control of the district after only a few hours, provincial spokesman Ismail Jihangir said; the Taliban melted away when a large contingent of Afghan police and soldiers moved in. NATO forces were not involved, the Western military said.

The fate of the abducted officers was unknown, and provincial officials said the brief takeover underscored the growing vulnerability of isolated districts in a province where the insurgency has been growing stronger.

Ghazni's geographic position is strategic; the main highway between the capital, Kabul, and the south's main city of Kandahar runs through it. NATO supply convoys come under frequent attack when they pass through the province.

"The security situation is very bad in Ghazni - in many parts of the province, the government has no control," said Qayum Sajadi, a member of parliament from the province.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Khogyani, and spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid boasted that the insurgents could strike at will.

Sajadi likened the security situation in Ghazni to that in southern Helmand. Most of the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan are concentrated in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar.