Taleban kill 26 Afghan soldiers

Shebako governor killed by roadside mine

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, July 26, (Agencies): At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed in a Taleban attack on a military base in southern Kandahar province, the defence ministry said Wednesday, the latest blow to the country’s struggling security forces.

The Afghan air force said it carried out strikes backing up soldiers on the ground during the hours-long attack on the base, which began late Tuesday and ended in the early hours of Wednesday.

At least 13 soldiers were also wounded in the attack, MOD spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said. The Afghan forces “bravely resisted”, he added, killing more than 80 insurgents.

The camp was located in the remote Karzali area of Khakrez district, near the border with restive Helmand, where the Taleban hold vast swathes of territory.

“We conducted multiple airstrikes killing dozens of them. Our helicopters transported wounded soldiers to hospitals in Kandahar,” said General Raziq Shirzai, the provincial air force commander.

One senior army source said up to 12 soldiers are still missing following the assault, which he described as a “very heavy attack”.

The insurgents stole guns and vehicles as they retreated, he said.

Residents described hearing the airstrikes, and said the attack was launched by a 30-strong convoy carrying “hundreds” of Taleban who assaulted the base from multiple directions.

The insurgents claimed the attack via their Twitter account.

The resurgent Taleban have been ramping up their campaign against beleaguered government forces, underscoring rising insecurity in the wartorn country during the summer fighting season when the warmer weather tends to spur an increase in militant attacks.

Afghan security forces — beset by a high death toll, desertions and nonexistent “ghost soldiers” on the payroll — have been struggling to beat back the insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to US watchdog SIGAR.

Complex

The insurgents have carried out more complex attacks against security forces in 2017, with SIGAR describing troop casualties in the early part of the year as “shockingly high”.

In April at least 135 soldiers are believed to have been killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-iSharif, one of the deadliest ever Taleban attacks on a military installation. Some sources put the toll as high as 200.

Meanwhile in early March gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital — the country’s largest military hospital — in Kabul, killing dozens.

The Taleban have a heavy presence in poppy-growing Kandahar province and have launched repeated attacks on security forces there, including multiple assaults on military bases in May which killed dozens of soldiers.

A recent UN report described Kandahar, which lies on the border with Pakistan, as also one of the most dangerous places in the country for civilians.

More than 70 villagers were kidnapped by the Taleban over the weekend, officials said. Seven were found dead and some 30 returned, while Afghan police have launched a search and rescue operation for the remainder of the missing.

Afghan forces now control 59.7 percent of the country, up from 57.2 percent the previous quarter, according to SIGAR.

But the Taleban and other insurgent groups have also seen their areas of control or influence increase slightly from about 10 percent to 11.1 percent.

Meanwhile, an Afghan official says a roadside mine killed the governor of Shebako District in western Farah province along with his son and five bodyguards.

The provincial governor’s spokesman, Mohammad Naser Mehri, blamed Tuesday’s powerful explosion on the Taleban, although no one immediately claimed responsibility.

Mehri said the district governor, Abdul Rahim Haydari, was returning home when the mine destroyed the vehicle in which he was a passenger, killing everyone inside the vehicle.

The Taleban have stepped up their attacks in the north and west of the country in recent days taking control of two separate districts, one in Faryab province and one in Ghor province and temporarily closing a key highway linking the capital Kabul to northern Afghanistan.

from President Yameen Abdul Gayoom to prevent a vote on a no-confidence motion against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed. It said the motion had support from 45 lawmakers in the 85-member house, and that it would have challenged the president’s power had it succeeded.

The government, however, said no voting had been scheduled for Monday. It said forces were called in to strengthen security in the parliament building because some parties were calling for protests nearby.

Some opposition lawmakers broke through the barriers, but they were forcibly thrown out by military troops and police officers, some of whom used pepper spray.

The foreign embassies said in their statement that the closure of parliament and the harassment and intimidation of lawmakers were “deeply troubling.” They called on the Maldives’ government to “respect fundamental freedom.”

Yameen has been accused of rolling back democratic gains the Maldives has made since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008. His control over parliament is threatened by an agreement reached this year between former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom — a half brother of the current president — and the Maldives’ first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed.

A similar opposition bid to oust the speaker was defeated in March with no dissenting votes after opposition lawmakers were either evicted or walked out from the vote following a dispute over problems with the electronic voting system. (AP)