Taliban kill seven Afghan police in attack

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban stormed a police checkpoint in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province and killed seven policemen, a provincial official said Monday.

The attack took place the previous night in the district of Ghani Kahil, said the provincial police chief, Ghulam Sanayee Stanikzai. Five Taliban fighters were killed in the attack, he said.

Stanikzai also said that in Khogyani district, also in Nangarhar province, a government airstrike Sunday night left 20 Taliban fighters dead.

There was no statement from the Taliban on either the Ghani Kahil attack or the airstrike.

Earlier on Sunday, a suicide bomber on foot struck outside the building of the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry in the capital, Kabul, killing seven people and wounding 15. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Monday on its Aamaq news agency, saying it targeted government employees and warning their attacks will reach “all who help the Crusaders,” a term militants use to refer to foreign forces.

Meanwhile, intense weeklong battles have been underway between the Taliban and the Islamic State in northern Jawzjan province, according to Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani, the provincial police chief.

Jawzjani said on Monday that around 70 Islamic State fighters and 54 Taliban insurgents may have been killed in the fighting in districts of Darzab and Qushtipa. The information, which came from the rival sides, could not be immediately verified by the security forces, Jawzjani also said.