Taliban ambush kills 11 Afghan soldiers: officials

HERAT, Afghanistan: At least 11 Afghan soldiers have been killed in a Taliban ambush in western Afghanistan, officials said on Monday, as troops face their first fighting season without Nato combat support.
The militants launched their annual spring-summer offensive in late April, vowing nationwide attacks in what is expected to be the bloodiest summer for a decade.
Afghan troops and police, stretched on multiple fronts and facing record casualties, are struggling to rein in the militants even as the government makes repeated efforts to jump-start peace negotiations.
“The Taliban ambushed a convoy of soldiers in Karukh district of Herat, killing 11 Afghan army soldiers last evening. The soldiers were riding in pickup trucks,” Ehsanullah Hayat, spokesman for the governor of the western province of Herat, told AFP.
Najibullah Najibi, a spokesman for the army in western Afghanistan, confirmed the attack and said four soldiers were wounded. Dozens of protesters took to the streets in Charikar, the capital of Parwan province north of Kabul, on Monday to complain about an operation by foreign forces overnight. The protesters set tyres on fire in the main market and chanted anti-American slogans, according to local TV reports.