Taliban fighters seize control of key northern region

KABUL — Taliban insurgents mounted coordinated attacks from three different directions on Sayad district in northern Sari Pul province Saturday, killing at least seven security forces, said a provincial official.

Zabi Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said insurgents seized control of the strategic Mirzawalang area in Sayad district on Saturday after two days of intense gun battles with the Afghan forces.

“We requested reinforcement for the central government, unfortunately couldn’t get any support, that is why the forces lost control of Mirzawalang,” said Amani.

Qari Yusouf Ahamdi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attacks in an email sent to media.

Amani said 10 Taliban fighters, including two group leaders, were also killed in the battles and four Afghan security officers were wounded.

The Taliban have stepped up their attacks on the country’s northern provinces recently. The group seized control several months ago of another district in the same province, where they organized and initiated their latest attack, according to local officials.

There have been unconfirmed reports of more than a dozen civilians, as well as local police, being killed after the insurgents took control of the area, added Amani.

Elsewhere, the provincial director of the counter-narcotics unit in western Ghor province was killed by two gunmen, said the spokesman for the provincial police chief in Ghor province, Iqbal Nezami.

Two men on a motorbike shot and killed counter-narcotics chief Noorudin Shairfi in the province’s capital Faroz Koh, said Nezami. “No one has been arrested, but the police have launched an investigation,” he added.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.