Militants launched two attacks against Afghanistan's vulnerable police, killing eight officers including four who were destroying a field of opium poppies, officials said Sunday. The attack against the eradication team in Kandahar province's Maiwand district Saturday was at least the third time militants have attacked efforts to destroy opium poppies in the last several weeks. A week ago, fighters killed seven police who were eradicating poppies. Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib has said police would increase protection levels around the teams. Around 100 police on the country's poppy-eradication force were killed in the line of duty over the last year, the Interior Ministry has said. Militants or criminal gangs are attacking the police eradication teams to protect a business that provides them with tens of millions of dollars (euros) a year. Police dispatched backup to the checkpoint, but Taleban militants ambushed one of the police trucks, killing four officers and wounding seven. __
