Taliban assault kills 22 Afghan troops

KABUL, Afghanistan — An overnight Taliban assault on checkpoints in northern Afghanistan killed 22 soldiers, officials said Sunday.

The officials also said that some 100 Afghan troops in western Badghis province fled their posts last week during an unrelated battle and tried to cross into neighboring Turkmenistan. Mohammad Naser Nazari, a provincial council member in Badghis, said the soldiers weren’t allowed to cross the border and their fate remains unknown.

The two battles mark the latest setbacks for the country’s battered security forces that have come under daily attack and suffered staggering casualties in recent years. The attacks have continued even as the Taliban have been holding direct negotiations with the United States aimed at ending the 17-year war.

Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, head of provincial council in the northern Faryab province, said the insurgents launched the attack late Saturday against checkpoints manned by police and pro-government militias in Qaisar district, setting off a fierce gunbattle that lasted into Sunday morning. The army sent in reinforcements, who were among those killed.

He said another 20 Afghan troops were wounded in the attack.

In a separate development on Sunday, an Islamic State affiliate claimed the killing of a local TV journalist in the eastern Khost province. The group did not say why it targeted Sultan Mahmoud Khirkhowa, a reporter with the local Zhman TV and radio, who was killed Friday when two men on a motorcycle opened fire on his vehicle.