Ambushes and gunbattles around Afghanistan killed at least 26 people, including 12 government employees and unarmed police killed by gunmen in the relatively calm north, officials said Monday. Three unidentified gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the police and government employees in a remote area of northeastern Badakhshan province, killing 12 people Sunday, said police chief Gen. Agha Noor Kemtuz. The attack killed seven police and five government employees. They were traveling to Kabul, Kemtuz said. The police were being transferred to new posts and so were not armed, he said, adding that the violence could have been sparked by a personal conflict between the attackers and the officers. Militant attacks are relatively uncommon in northern Afghanistan, though the area has seen a handful of suicide bomb attacks this year. Gunfire killed a NATO service member Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement. It did not provide any details, including the victim's nationality, though the majority of soldiers in the east are American. Insurgency-related violence has left more than 4,400 dead so far this year, most of them militants, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Afghan and Western officials.
