So-called ‘blue on green’ attacks among allied forces have declined in recent years [Ahmad Masood/Reuters]

A scoundrel policeman that has been collaborating with insurgents in southern Afghanistan shot dead 10 of his colleagues in the early hours of Tuesday after first poisoning their food, an official said.

This crime is the latest in a long series of so-called insider attacks. It took place at a checkpoint in the Chenartu district of the unstable southern province of Uruzgan, district chief Faiz Mohammad told Reuters.

Security forces are looking for the policemen and the presumed Taliban allies who joined him in shooting his colleagues on Tuesday, Faiz Mohammad said.

“After the shooting, the policeman and Taliban stole their weapons and burnt the checkpoint and a police vehicle,” the chief district added.

The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for the attack.

A similar incident took place last week in Uruzgan, which borders the traditional Taliban stronghold of Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where four police shot and killed nine colleagues before joining the Taliban with weapons and equipment.

Low morale and high desertion rates have been a critical problem in Afghanistan, with several repeated instances of police and soldiers going over to the Taliban.

After the U.S.-led forces, that ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, withdrew most of their troops in 2014, the Taliban have stepped up their insurgency and have launched a concentrated campaign in Helmand and other southern provinces.