Taliban militants kill 6 Afghan policemen

Suspected Taliban militants have killed six Afghan policemen, including four whose bodies were burned, in the southern Kandahar province, a police official said Friday. The militants ambushed the police at a highway checkpoint building late Thursday in the Navand district on the Kandahar-Herat road, said provincial highway police chief Raz Mohammed Khan.

Photo: Taliban militants kill 6 Afghan policemen

Two of the police were killed and their bodies burned on the building's roof, while the bodies of two more slain policemen were found burned inside the post, Khan told The Associated Press. Two other policemen were shot dead outside the building before the militants fled into the night.

Police are investigating the incident and no arrests have been made. Cremating bodies is banned by Islam, and Muslim clerics in Afghanistan previously reacted angrily after a video broadcast by Australian television in October purported to show American soldiers burning two dead Taliban fighters. Taliban militants have claimed responsibility for a spike in brazen attacks targeting Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in recent months, particularly in southern areas such as the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar , reports the AP.

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