Taliban insurgents killed dozens of Afghan soldiers in overnight attacks in Baghlan and Zabul provinces, bringing the number of security forces and police killed in the past week into the hundreds.
Taliban stormed an Afghan National Army post in Qalat, the capital of the southern Zabul province on Tuesday night, killing at least 12 soldiers.
Three other ANA soldiers remain missing, provincial officals said on Wednesday, August 15.
In the north, 40 soldiers and police were killed at a military outpost in Baghlan’s Baghlan-i-Markazi district. The provincial council said nine police officers and 35 soldiers were killed in the attack, which Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for, Al Jazeera reported.
On Monday, Taliban insurgents captured an Afghan military base in Faryab province. More than 60 members of the security forces were killed at the base in Chenayeeha, called ‘Chinese Camp’, while about 40 others surrendered after days of repeated requests for assistance from commanders in Mazar-i-Sharif.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that more than 200 Afghan government forces had been killed in three days of fighting on four fronts.
As many as 100 Afghan soldiers and police, along with dozens of civilians, were killed in a four-day Taliban assault on the city of Ghazni despite repeated claims from Kabul and U.S. military that the government was in control of the city.
“The Afghan National Army’s 203rd Corps, the Afghan National Police’s 303rd Zone and Afghan Special Security Forces continue to conduct clearing operations to root out remnants of the Taliban within the city,” U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and Resolute Support spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Martin L. O’Donnell said on Tuesday.
AFP reported Wednesday that Taliban fighters appeared to finally have been ousted from Ghazni city, although it is uncertain how many insurgents remain in other districts in the province.
This is a developing story and will be updated.