17e aanslag wordt politiechef in Uruzgan fataal

De Afghaanse politiechef Tor Jan, die 16 aanslagen op zijn leven had overleefd, is door een bermbom gedood. Dat heeft een woordvoerder van de politie in de provincie Uruzgan laten weten.

Jan leidde een politiebureau in Uruzgan, de provincie in het zuiden van Afghanistan, waar Nederlandse militairen van augustus 2006 tot en met eind 2010 waren gelegerd.

Jan bestreed de radicale taliban te vuur en te zwaard. De meeste van de 16 aanslagen die hij overleefde, waren tegen hem persoonlijk gericht. Hij kwam om toen zijn wagen in het district Tarin Kowt door een explosie werd getroffen.

(RTL Nieuws, 1 april 2012)


Cop who survived 16 bombs killed

An Afghan policeman who survived 16 bomb attacks by the Taliban was killed by a roadside bomb overnight.

Tor Jan, the leader of a police post in the southern province of Uruzgan, a hotbed of the insurgency against the Kabul government and its Western allies, was renowned for leading attacks against the Taliban.

Mr Jan had survived 16 explosions, most of them aimed at him personally, but was killed when his vehicle was hit by a blast in Tirin Kot district where he was based, Uruzgan police spokesman Farid Ail said.

"He was very active against the Taliban. The Taliban considered him an enemy," he said, describing Mr Jan as a "brave officer".

"He had survived 16 such attacks. Today in the 17th attack he was martyred."

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, are the weapon of choice for Taliban insurgents in the long-running conflict.

They are responsible for the bulk of military casualties among both Afghan security personnel and the US-led NATO force, and were also the single largest killer of Afghan civilians last year, according to a UN report in February.

The UN Mission in Afghanistan document said that a total of 3021 civilians died in the Afghan conflict - mostly at the hands of insurgents - in 2011, up eight per cent from 2010.

Afghan forces are to take over security responsibility across the whole of the country by the end of 2014, when the last foreign combat troops, who currently number 130,000, are due to be withdrawn.

(AFP, 1 April 2012)