Afghan government: Police die in fire from US-hired guards military comment (Roundup)

Jun 29, 2009, 14:37 GMT

   Kabul - At least five police officers were killed Monday in a shootout with private security guards hired by the US-led coalition at a prosecutor's office in restive southern Afghanistan, the government said.

   Police raided the guards' company and arrested its 41 personnel for investigation after disarming them, Kandahar Governor Toryali Wesa said after President Hamid Karzai called for the coalition to hand over the guards involved in the killing.

   'Police arrested 41 guards of the company and sent them to Kabul for interrogation,' the governor said at a news conference.

   He did not identify the company.

   'Reports suggest that gunmen of a private security company employed by coalition forces based in southern Afghanistan today attacked the prosecutor's office of Kandahar province to release a prisoner, but after facing resistance, opened fire on the police officials,' said a statement released Monday the presidential office in Kabul.

   The police chief of Kandahar city, the capital of Kandahar province, and the head of its Criminal Investigation Department were among those killed, the presidential office and officials in the restive province said.

   The US military said in a statement, however, that no coalition troops or personnel affiliated with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were involved. It described it as a 'purely Afghan' incident.

   The presidential office said five police officers were killed while local officials, including Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council and President Karzai's brother, originally said the death toll in the gunbattle was nine.

   The circumstances surrounding the gunfire remained confused. Earlier, however, a government official said on the condition of anonymity that security contractors hired by foreign forces and used in military operations tried to remove a prisoner detained in the prosecutor's office.

   The provincial prosecutor called on the police for help to prevent the contractors from taking the prisoner and fighting started as soon as the police chief exchanged harsh words and insults with the contractors, the source said.

   President Karzai strongly condemned the shootings in his hometown, which is also the Taliban's former stronghold, and ordered an investigation.

   'President Karzai said that such incidents negatively impact the state-building process in Afghanistan and called upon coalition forces to avoid actions that weaken the government,' the statement from his office added.

   There was no indication that the Taliban was involved in the shooting.