FILE PHOTO
Wed 01 January 2019:
The Taliban unleashed a new wave of attacks in northern Afghanistan, targeting members of the country’s security forces and killing at least 26, local officials said on Wednesday.
The insurgents quickly claimed responsibility for all the attack.
The Taliban today hold sway over practically half of Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks that target soldiers, security forces and government officials but also kill scores of civilians.
In northern Kunduz province, at least 10 Afghan soldiers were killed and four others wounded in an attack on a police checkpoint in the district of Dashti Archi on Tuesday night, Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of provincial council, said.
And in Balkh province, the Taliban killed nine police officers in an attack on their checkpoint. The fate of four other officers who were at the checkpoint was unknown, said Mohammad Afzel Hadid, head of the provincial council.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed that the insurgents in the Balkh attack had infiltrated police ranks and waited for a chance to strike.
Though the Taliban often exaggerate their claims, the insurgents also on occasion disguise themselves in Afghan uniforms to get easier access to their targets.
In a third attack on Tuesday night, seven members of the security forces were killed in a gun battle with the Taliban in Takhar province, Jawad Hajri, the provincial governor’s spokesman, said.
Mr Hajri said 10 Taliban fighters were also killed.
The shoot-out took place in Darqad district after security forces had successfully cleared out the militants from several other districts in the past week, Mr Hajri said.
Fighting was still under way there on Wednesday.
The Taliban have intensified their attacks in northern Afghanistan in recent days.
They struck a pro-government militia compound in Jawzjan province before dawn on Monday, killing 14 members of the Afghan security forces.
A similar militia compound was targeted in Takhar on Sunday, when at least 17 militiamen were killed. On Friday, at least 10 Afghan soldiers died in a Taliban attack on a checkpoint in southern Helmand province.
The latest Taliban attacks underscore that the insurgents are at their strongest in the 18-year war, America’s longest conflict, even as their leadership, based in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar, has been negotiating with a US envoy.
Washington has demanded that a ceasefire take place before any peace agreement can be signed.
