Taleban kill dozens in Afghanistan attacks

mazar-i-sharif — Taleban militants killed nearly 60 members of Afghanistan’s beleaguered security forces in a spate of attacks across the country’s north, officials said on Monday, as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war intensify.

Heavy fighting overnight in four provinces followed a wave of violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has left hundreds of civilians, police and soldiers dead. After seizing a military base in Sar-e-Pul, Taleban fighters were threatening the provincial capital in a situation that could result in “disaster” if reinforcements were not sent, the area’s police chief Abdul Qayom Baqizoy warned.

Baqizoy compared the threat to the Taleban’s extraordinary raid last month on the provincial capital of Ghazni — fighters held large parts of the city located just two hours from Kabul for days. At least 17 security forces have been killed near Sar-e-Pul city after militants seized a checkpoint in Sayyad district and burned it to the ground, provincial governor Zahir Wahdat told journalists on Monday.

Air support has been called in, he said. About 39 Taleban fighters have been killed and 14 wounded.

“The fighting is still ongoing near the city and the central government is going to send more reinforcements soon,” Wahdat said.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan’s north, the Taleban’s elite Red unit attacked several police posts in Kunduz, killing at least 19 officers.

Insurgents also raided two police checkpoints in Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province, killing 14 officers, northern Afghanistan police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said.

In Jowzjan province hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed Khomab district centre, near Turkmenistan, killing eight security force members. —