Eight Afghan policemen from one family killed by colleague

Eight policemen, all members of one family, have been shot dead
in northern Afghanistan.

Government officials said the group were drugged and killed at a
checkpoint in Faryab province.

Some reports claim their killer was a colleague who was secretly
working with the Taliban, while one said he was a Taliban fighter
who had surrendered.

The victims are said to be a father, two sons, two sons-in-law
and three nephews.

No group said it had carried out the attack, but a spokesman for
Faryab provincial police told AFP news agency the suspect had
"fled back to the Taliban".

Abul Karim Yoresh told AFP the victims were four regular
policemen and four auxiliary officers.

They "were drugged by their colleague, who then opened fire on
them at a police checkpoint in the Almar district" of Faryab
province, he said.

District governor Saleh Saleh confirmed that all eight of the dead
were members of the same family.

A similar incident saw two killed in the northern province of
Kunduz in September, when two Afghan soldiers opened fire on
their sleeping colleagues.

An official US report earlier this week said the number of Afghan
security personnel killed last year rose by a third over the
previous year's tally.