Taliban surprise attacks kill 25 Afghan officers
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants launched surprise attacks against multiple police checkpoints in southern Afghanistan and killed at least 25 officers, officials said Sunday.
Officials in Zabol province said that militants from several provinces carried out the attacks against government installations in the provincial capital, Qalat, and three police posts in Shahjoy district late Saturday.
The provincial governor, Bismillah Afghanmal, said 25 police officers were killed and six wounded. The victims included members of both the Afghan National Police and the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-funded government militia that provides security in rural areas.
Officials said some civilians had also been harmed, but there were no immediate details.
Bakht Mohammad, an Afghan Local Police commander in Shahjoy, said by phone Sunday that fighting with the Taliban was continuing.
“I can see some dead bodies of the Taliban on the ground,” he said, adding that a Taliban leader had been killed.
Atta Jan Haqbayan, head of theprovincial council in Zabol, said Taliban fighters from three provinces were attempting to capture the district, part of thegroup’s drive to increase its share of territory in outlying parts of Afghanistan. The U.S. military estimates that more than 40% of the Afghan population lives under areas of total or partial Taliban control.
The Afghan security forces “suffered big casualties,” Haqbayan said. “We also have civilian casualties. The [Afghan Local Police] is running out of ammo and isn’t getting backup on time.”
Tolo News, an Afghan news organization, said that officials in Zabol complained that they could not immediately reach their superiors to request assistance after the fighting began.
Shafiqullah, a 28-yearold school principal in Shahjoy who goes by only one name, said he took shelter in his house and could hear bullets and rocket fire nearby.
“The attack was huge,” he said Sunday afternoon. “But half an hour ago some backup arrived [for Afghan forces] and the fighting resumed.”
The reports underscored worries that the Afghan security forces are often outgunned by the Taliban, which is adept at mounting surprise attacks.
President Trump is reportedly weighing whether to send as many as 5,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to increase aid to Afghan soldiers and police. Fewer than 10,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan.
In a separate incident in Kabul, gunmen attacked a guesthouse occupied by foreign aid workers, killing a German woman and an Afghan security guard, authorities said. A Finnish woman was missing and believed kidnapped.
The two women were members of the staff of Operation Mercy, a Swedish charity organization, said Cathy Stanley, a spokeswoman for the group.
Foreign nationals have often been targeted by armed men and militant groups in Afghanistan.
In January, the Taliban released a video in which two Western men pleaded with then-President-elect Trump to secure their release. They are still being held.