Taliban kill 60 members of security forces in attacks

MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Taliban fighters killed nearly 60 members of Afghanistan´s beleaguered security forces in a spate of attacks across the country´s north, officials said Monday, as diplomatic efforts to end the 17-year war intensify.

Heavy fighting overnight in four provinces followed a wave of violence across the war-torn country in recent weeks that has left hundreds of civilians, police and soldiers dead.

After seizing a military base in Sar-e-Pul, Taliban fighters were threatening the provincial capital in a situation that could result in “disaster” if reinforcements were not sent, the area´s police chief Abdul Qayom Baqizoy warned.

Baqizoy compared the threat to the Taliban´s extraordinary raid last month on the provincial capital of Ghazni — fighters held large parts of the city located just two hours from Kabul for days.

At least 17 security forces have been killed near Sar-e-Pul city after militants seized a checkpoint in Sayyad district and burned it to the ground, provincial governor Zahir Wahdat told journalists Monday. Air support has been called in, he said. About 39 Taliban fighters have been killed and 14 wounded.

“The fighting is still ongoing near the city and the central government is going to send more reinforcements soon,” Wahdat said. Elsewhere in Afghanistan´s north, the Taliban´s elite Red unit attacked several police posts in Kunduz, killing at least 19 officers and wounding around 20, Dasht-e-Archi district chief Nasruddin Saadi told AFP.

Insurgents also raided two police checkpoints in Dara-e-Suf district of Samangan province, killing 14 officers, northern Afghanistan police spokesman Sarwar Hussaini said.

In Jowzjan province hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed Khomab district centre, near Turkmenistan, killing eight security force members and seizing control of government headquarters, provincial deputy police chief Abdul Hafeez Khashi told AFP. The increased violence comes as Afghan and international players ratchet up efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban, which was toppled from power by US-led forces in 2001.

US officials met with Taliban representatives in Qatar in July and there is speculation the two sides will meet again this month, raising hopes for peace.

On Sunday a suicide bomber blew himself up in Kabul during commemorations for famed resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 20. SITE Intelligence group said the local Islamic State group claimed the attack on IS´s propaganda channel Amaq. The interior ministry would not respond to repeated requests from AFP for details about the latest violence. Defence ministry spokesman Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed had his phone switched off.