Taliban stage a major attack, as violence intensifies in Afghanistan

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN >> The Taliban waged a sustained assault against an Afghan intelligence complex in the city of Aybak on Monday, killing at least 11 people and wounding more than 60 others, part of a bloody wave of violence across the country’s north.

With the opening of peace talks between the insurgency and the Afghan government stalled for months, the Taliban have intensified their offensives, creating one of the deadliest years of the long war.

On Monday, insurgents detonated a car bomb at the provincial headquarters of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security in Aybak, the capital of Samangan province, about 150 miles northwest of Kabul.

The blast, which also struck a nearby municipal compound, opened the way for fighters to enter the intelligence agency complex, where they battled Afghan forces for hours, said Sefatullah Samangani, the deputy governor of the province.

Samangani said 11 officers of the intelligence agency, mostly men but at least one woman, were killed and 63 others were wounded. Only 15 of the wounded were intelligence officers and the rest civilians.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban, confirmed that the insurgency was behind the attack.

A major attack inside a city seems to breach an understanding between the United States and the Taliban, which signed a preliminary peace deal in February that begun the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

The deal, in which the Taliban guaranteed that they would not attack U.S. targets, has faced criticism because it lacked any guarantee of a cease-fire with Afghans. But U.S. officials have said that they had an understanding with the Taliban that the insurgents would reduce their levels of violence by as much as 80% and not attack in major cities and population centers.

Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani, called on the Taliban to stop what he described as “criminal and inhumane” attacks that could derail the peace efforts.

The ongoing attack in Samangan caps a bloody 24 hours in northern Afghanistan, where Taliban launched attacks in several provinces, officials said.

At least 20 members of the Afghan security forces were killed in overnight assaults in two districts of Kunduz province. In Badakhshan province, the Taliban attacked security posts in Arghanj Khwa district, killing at least seven from the security forces.