Afghan guards killed by Taliban

18/10/2010| IslamWeb

Nine private security guards have been killed and three wounded in an attack on a checkpoint set up to protect a construction site in southern Afghanistan.

The attack occurred early on Monday morning at in Nad Ali, a town in Helmand province, Al Jazeera has learned. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack - the second on a construction company in the past 24 hours.

All of the guards killed in the attack were Afghan citizens, Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reported. The construction company was working on a road that links Nad Ali to Highway 1, also called the Ring Road, Turton said. The Ring Road is Afghanistan's major highway, circling the entire country.

The Taliban has threatened to kill anyone who participates in reconstruction projects connected with or funded by the foreigners.

The previous day, Taliban fighters attacked another construction company in Farah province, west of Helmand, capturing 20 workers. Two fighters were killed in the attack, and the workers are still being held.

The issue of private security guards in Afghanistan has been controversial for years. Security contractors have been accused of killing civilians unjustifiably, carrying illegal guns and importing weapons illegally into the country.

But on Sunday, the Afghan government backed away from an August decree by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, that called for a total ban on private security guards by 2011.

Ban reversal

Karzai's administration will now allow private guards to provide 'security' "for embassies, transport of diplomats, diplomatic residences, international forces' bases and depots can continue operation within these limits", the AFP news agency reported.

Karzai's decree aimed to take security out of the hands of private contractors viewed by the administration as often too trigger-happy and a competing base of power within the country. It would have put the Afghan army and police in charge of such duties.

PHOTO CAPTION

An Afghan private security official patrols the streets of Kabul in August 2010.

Al-Jazeera