Taliban kills 17 Afghans at police post

KABUL -- Taliban insurgents poisoned, then shot and killed 17 people as they slept at a police post in eastern Afghanistan, one of two attacks in as many days targeting Afghan security forces, an official said yesterday.

It's unclear how the militants were able to drug people inside the post before firing bullets into their incapacitated bodies Tuesday night, said Abdul Jamhe Jamhe, a government official in Ghazni province.

Ten members of the Afghan Local Police, a village-level defense force backed by the U.S. military and Afghan government, and seven of their civilian friends died in the attack, said Provincial Gov. Musa Khan Akbarzada. He said there was a conspiracy of some sort but declined to confirm whether poison was involved.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Andar district. He told The Associated Press by telephone the men were shot in their sleep, but denied they had been poisoned. -- AP