KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban militants overran a cluster of government outposts in northwestern Afghanistan on Friday, leaving more than a dozen Afghan soldiers dead, including several troops from an elite police unit, officials said.

The brutal fighting came a day after the United States and the Taliban ended their sixth round of peace negotiations and the militant group said that it would continue to mount attacks, including ones like the car bomb directed at two Western aid organizations in Kabul on Wednesday that killed nine and wounded at least 20.

Col. Qais Mangal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, said the Taliban had attacked two outposts in the Murghab district of Badghis Province that are shared by the army, the police and the National Directorate of Security. He said the Afghan military had sent reinforcements as the fighting continued.

“Unfortunately, the Afghan forces suffered casualties, but there isn’t any information about the exact number,” Colonel Mangal said. </s> KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A Taliban attack on an Afghan army outpost near the northern city of Kunduz has killed at least 29 soldiers, while air strikes in other parts of the country killed dozens of insurgents, officials said on Thursday.

On the day that NATO leaders meeting in Brussels were discussing Afghanistan, the fighting was a sharp reminder that no end to the war is in sight despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by Kabul’s international allies.

Kunduz, a strategic northern city which the Taliban have come close to taking twice in the past three years, has been relatively calm but fighting has picked up since the end of a three-day truce during last month’s Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Sunnatullah Temori, a spokesman for the governor in neighboring Takhar province, said the soldiers were killed when the Taliban stormed a base in Pul-e-Momin, an area between the provinces of Kunduz and Takhar late on Wednesday.

He said the insurgents had seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition and said fighting was threatening the center of nearby Khwaja-e-Ghar district, which he warned could fall if reinforcements were not sent quickly.

The latest fighting comes despite speculation about possible peace talks between the government and the Taliban, with calls from a special religious council meeting in Saudi Arabia this week for negotiations to end the 17-year conflict.

The United States last year stepped up air strikes as part of a strategy to force the Taliban to the negotiating table and commanders say that together with the fledgling Afghan air force, the campaign has inflicted heavy casualties on the insurgents.

However, despite the temporary Eid ceasefire, the Taliban have rejected peace talks while Islamic State militants, opposed to both the Western-backed government and the Taliban, have claimed a series of deadly suicide attacks in the past two weeks.

On Thursday, officials said dozens of militant fighters were killed in ground and air operations in Zurmat and Ahmad Aba districts of the eastern province of Paktia while in Ghazni, to the south, at least 27 Taliban were killed by an air strike on Wednesday.

Heavy fighting was also reported in the western province of Farah, where the Taliban came close to overrunning the provincial capital in May.

In Logar province, immediately to the south of Kabul, the Taliban burned down a school, the second they have destroyed in a month, Kabir Haqmal, a spokesman for the ministry of education said. </s> The Taliban has killed more than 20 pro-government forces and captured several security outposts in northern Afghanistan.

 

 The insurgents staged the deadly offensive to try to take control of oil fields in Sayyad district in Sar-e-Pol province, a local government spokesman told VOA Tuesday.

 

 Zabihullah Amani said that Afghan security forces, including police and intelligence operatives, deployed to the facility on the outskirts of the provincial capital, also called Sar-e-Pol, repulsed Monday night's attack by the Taliban.

Amani added that at least 23 Afghan forces were also wounded in several hours of fierce clashes. Senior police commanders and officers of the intelligence agency were said to be among the dead.

A Taliban spokesman claimed government forces lost more than 50 personnel and insurgents overran three security posts in the area. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the claims made by either side and insurgent battlefield details are often inflated.

 

 Insurgents also attacked the Chimtal district in the province late Monday where Afghan officials said fierce battles raged into the next day, but gave not details of casualties. 

 

 The Taliban has inflicted heavy casualties on embattled Afghan military and police forces during 2018 and captured more territory in the process.

 

 An insurgent report issued Monday claimed that the Taliban has brought 61 out of Afghanistan's 407 districts under its control in the previous year. The Afghan government has not offered any reaction to the militant claims

The United States has recently stepped up diplomatic efforts to seek a political resolution to the Afghan war and held several rounds of talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

 

 Officials say the interaction is meant to persuade the Taliban to join a peace process with the Afghan government. But the insurgent group refuses to hold any intra-Afghan dialogue until the U.S. agrees on a date or timeline for pulling out all foreign forces from Afghanistan. </s> The Taliban militants have killed at least 21 Afghan security forces and wounded nearly two dozen others in a number of simultaneous attacks in the country’s north.

Local officials said on Tuesday that the casualties took place when the militants carried out attacks on security outposts in Sayad district of the northern province of Sar-e Pul.

Zabihullah Amani, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said at least 21 local forces, including police and intelligence, were killed and another 23 wounded in the raids, which he said were aimed at seizing control of several oil wells on the outskirts of the provincial capital city of Sar-e Pul.

Amani also said hundreds of militants were still outside Sar-e-Pul, warning that the city was at risk of falling to the Taliban if reinforcements were not sent.

"The enemy is still amassing forces outside the city," he told AFP. "We have deployed all the forces available in the city, but no reinforcements have arrived from outside so far. The people inside the city are very worried. They have attacked the city many times in the past, but this time the threat is more serious.”

The Taliban confirmed the attacks on the northern Afghan province, claiming that they had captured three checkpoints and killed or wounded 50 members of the security forces.

The Taliban militants have in recent months stepped up attacks on security forces across Afghanistan, killing a large number of police forces as well as civilians.

This comes as representatives from the Taliban, the US, and regional countries met for the fourth time earlier in December in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi for talks to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan. The militant group’s representatives, however, refused to talk to the Afghan negotiating team.

Taliban leaders also announced on Sunday that the group’s representatives would meet US officials in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah for the fifth round of talks in January but not the representatives of the Afghan government.

President Ashraf Ghani has said the talks should be “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned,” insisting on continued efforts to establish a direct line of diplomatic communication with the Taliban.

The Taliban’s five-year rule over at least three quarters of Afghanistan came to an end with a US-led invasion in 2001; but 17 years on, the militant group continues to be active on much of Afghan soil. The Taliban have strengthened their grip over the past three years, with the government in Kabul controlling just 56 percent of the country, down from 72 percent in 2015, a recent US government report showed.

Having failed to end the militancy campaign, Washington has over the past months stepped up its political efforts to secure a truce with Taliban.

The Taliban and the Afghan government have previously said the presence of foreign troops is the biggest obstacle to peace in Afghanistan.

Taliban militants have warned of stepping up their attacks until the US forces fully withdraw from Afghanistan.

US President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the withdrawal of some 7,000 troops from Afghanistan. The figure accounts for about half of the total number of American boots on the ground in the country.

But a later White House announcement has cast doubt on reports about Trump’s order.

The Taliban have not formally responded to the partial US troop withdrawal. But a senior commander recently told media outlets that the group was “more than happy.”

In a report published on Tuesday, diplomats from Afghanistan’s neighbors told Reuters that there were fears a US troop pullout could trigger hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee into their countries.

“At this point, there is no clarity about the withdrawal, but we have to keep a clear action plan ready,” a senior Asian diplomat based in Kabul told Reuters. “The situation can turn from bad to worse very quickly.”

Afghanistan shares a border with Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China, and is the world’s second-biggest source of refugees, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Diplomats from the countries told Reuters they would increase border preparations in anticipation of refugees.

This article has been adapted from its original source. </s> LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A series of militant attacks in Afghanistan killed more than 20 people, officials said on Saturday, ahead of an international meeting next week aimed at building diplomatic support for hoped-for peace talks with the Taliban.

Taliban militants attacked an Afghan army post overnight on Friday, killing 18 government soldiers, while a suicide bomber in the capital killed three people and wounded five, and separate attacks in Helmand killed at least three others.

The attacks came as a high-level NATO delegation visited Afghanistan, pledging support for President Ashraf Ghani’s government, which on Wednesday hosts the latest in a series of diplomatic meetings aimed at laying the groundwork for a possible political process involving the Taliban.

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan since U.S. President Donald Trump in August unveiled a more aggressive strategy, with U.S.-led forces carrying out more air strikes, and the Taliban responding with bombs, ambushes and raids.

The Taliban, fighting to drive out foreign forces and re-impose its version of strict Islamic law, said in a statement it had attacked a government army post overnight on Friday in the western province of Farah. Government officials confirmed the attack.

“A large number of Taliban attacked an army outpost and we lost 18 soldiers and two were wounded,” said government spokesman Dawlat Waziri.

On Saturday a bomber blew himself up on a road in Kabul near an office of the Afghan intelligence services, the latest in a spate of attacks in the city in which hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. Islamic State claimed responsibility in a message carried by its Amaq news agency.

The capital has been on high alert since a Taliban suicide bomber blew up an explosive-packed ambulance on a busy street on Jan. 27, killing more than 100 people and wounding at least 235.

A week earlier, militants had killed more than 20 people, including four Americans, in an attack on one of the city’s top hotels. The Taliban claimed that attack too.

SOFT TARGETS

General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said NATO would help authorities improve security in the capital as well as aiding Afghan forces in pressuring the insurgents with air strikes.

“We expect the enemy to continue with these horrendous attacks,” Nicholson said, but added there had been a “lowering of ambition” by the Taliban which he said had given up trying to seize cities or whole provinces in favor of soft civilian targets.

“The Taliban cannot win and their best hope for the future is to engage in reconciliation,” Nicholson told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

Although there appears to be no immediate prospect of any negotiations with the insurgents, officials say low-level contacts, aimed at establishing the basis for future talks, have been going on behind the scenes.

“Talks about those - beginning talks are certainly in the works in different forms,” Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. permanent representative to NATO, said. “So don’t think that nothing is happening. A lot is happening in a very beginning stage ... of a way forward.”

Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, which first appeared near the border with Pakistan in 2015, has become increasingly active and has claimed several recent attacks, although Nicholson said its strength had been severely diminished and the movement had only between 1,500 and 2,000 fighters.

“We have cut their numbers in half over the last two years,” he said. Most fighters were Pakistani militants, with no sign of the flood of foreign fighters seen in Syria and Iraq. </s> At least 15 Afghan soldiers have been killed in an attack by the Taliban on a military base in Kandahar province.

Five others were injured in the assault on the facility in Shah Wali Kot district, defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Wazir told the BBC.

It comes four days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

The Taliban said it had carried out the attack, AFP news agency reports.

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Last month, the Taliban announced the start of their "spring offensive" a week after killing at least 135 Afghan soldiers in a military compound near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

Image copyright EPA Image caption Another military base in the area was attacked earlier this week

The group said it would use military alongside political tactics, and that its main target would be foreign forces.

The attacks in Kandahar follow raids on police outposts in central the central Zabul province on Sunday, which left at least 20 officers dead.

The US and other Nato allies are considering sending thousands more troops to back up the Afghan military as it battles the insurgency.

US combat operations against the Taliban officially ended in 2014, but special forces have continued to provide support to Afghan troops.

The Taliban is believed to control up to a third of Afghanistan, after gaining ground in the past two years. </s> Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis Wednesday upon his arrival at the airport in New Delhi, India. After departing India, Mattis made a surprise visit to Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by India Ministry of Defense/EPA-EFE

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made a surprise visit to Afghanistan Friday, in an attempt to rekindle peace talks with the Taliban.

U.S. embassy staff in Afghanistan have been working on a reconciliation plan with Taliban representatives since July.

"We have more indications that reconciliation is no longer just a shimmer out there, no longer just a mirage," Mattis said in Kabul Friday. "It now has some framework, there's some open lines of communication."

Taliban officials have said they will talk peace only with U.S. officials and refuse to negotiate with the Afghan government, calling it a "puppet regime."

RELATED Militant leader confirmed dead after years of uncertainty

Until recently, U.S. officials have insisted talks need to occur between the Afghan government and the Taliban. American representatives have backed off that claim, but still insist the peace process be "Afghan-owned and Afghan-led."

U.S. troop levels have increased from 10,000 a year ago to 14,000 now.

Despite the peace talks, Taliban and Islamic State fighters continue to launch attacks. The Taliban focused its attacks on Afghan soldiers and police, vowing not to deliberately kill civilians anymore.

RELATED Afghan forces free nearly 150 people taken hostage by Taliban

Friday's visit by Mattis came two days after a deadly suicide bombing in Kabul killed at least 25 civilians and injured nearly 100.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited nearby Pakistan and spoke of bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Despite U.S. claims that Pakistan is harboring militants targeting American troops in Afghanistan, Pompeo said the talks went well.

Mattis and Pompeo met with officials in India Thursday, where they released a joint statement reaffirming a "shared commitment to a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable, prosperous and peaceful Afghanistan."

U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan since October 2001, just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. </s> A series of high-profile Taliban attacks throughout Afghanistan this week that killed at least 200 Afghan security forces have raised questions about whether those forces can contain what appears to be a resurgent Taliban.The attacks come at a time when U.S. officials had indicated that the Trump administration's South Asia Strategy had created progress toward peace talks to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.The string of violence began last Friday with a highly coordinated Taliban attempt to overtake the city of Ghazni, located 75 miles south of Kabul.Afghan security forces initially repelled the Taliban attack, but at a high cost, with estimates that as many as 100 security personnel and 20 civilians were killed in heavy fighting.Additional days of heavy combat, the arrival of American military advisers and airstrikes have been needed to clear groups of Taliban fighters who'd hidden in the city's residential neighborhoods.The violence finally appeared to have ebbed on Wednesday."Ghazni is quiet," said Lt. Colonel Martin O'Donnell a spokesman for Resolute Support, the NATO advise and assist mission in Afghanistan. "As clearing operations continue, we have seen a dramatic decrease in Taliban activity, with nothing of significance to report militarily."Showing a high level of coordination, the Taliban was able to launch another high-profile attack in Ghazni Province. A large-scale attack in the western district of Ajristan killed an additional 50 security forces.Meanwhile, Taliban fighters have waged a series of large attacks in the northern province of Baghlan that have killed dozens of Afghan security forces. Attacks launched Wednesday on Afghan Army and police checkpoints killed at least 30 security personnel.Elsewhere in northern Afghanistan, Taliban fighters on Friday launched a deadly attack on an Afghan Army base in Faryab Province that reportedly killed more than 100.Kabul, the capital, has not been immune from the violence, though acts of violence are not always carried out by the Taliban.On Wednesday, a suicide-bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood killed at least 25 and wounded 35. While no group claimed responsibility, it fits a pattern of attacks conducted by the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan against the country's Shiite minority.American military officials insist the high-profile attack in Ghazni was par for the course for the Taliban."They attack for the purposes of gaining attention and recognition as being stronger than they are at the expense of the Afghan people," O'Donnell said. "However, they retreat once directly and decisively engaged by Afghan National Defense and Security Forces as they are unable to seize terrain and unable to match us [Afghan, NATO and U.S. forces] militarily."Defense Secretary James Mattis said as much while traveling to South America this week.Asked if the Taliban offensive in Ghazni showed anything new about the Taliban's intentions and capabilities, Mattis said, "To me, It simply means a continuation of their willingness to put innocent people in harm's way. There's nothing new. It's the usual endangering of civilians, part and parcel of what they've done for the last 20 years."O'Donnell said Taliban attacks that kill civilians and destroy homes discredit the organizations claims to the contrary.The other Taliban attacks elsewhere in Afghanistan exposed weaknesses in the tactics and security defenses used by Afghan security forces, including strikes at Afghan Army and police checkpoints such as the one Wednesday. Checkpoints checkpoints are visible reminders to local populations of an Afghan security presence.But their locations also make them vulnerable to attack, a major reason that U.S. and coalition military officers repeatedly stress to Afghan security forces that they should reduce the number of checkpoints. While some progress has been made in reducing the number, senior officials want to see further reductions.Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, stressed as much in a recent interview with ABC News and the Wall Street Journal after a trip to Afghanistan where he assessed the Trump administration's South Asia Strategy as sound, though tactical adjustments needed to be made."We need to make tactical adjustments with our advisers and work with the ANDSF to minimize tactics, like static checkpoints, that increase their vulnerability," he said. "We will do this through our leadership on the ground and with ANDSF leadership."Overall, during his recent trip to Afghanistan, Votel expressed "cautious optimism" that the South Asia Strategy was working and was creating the conditions for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.That strategy eliminated timelines for the removal of American troops and made their presence conditions-based. It also called for regional pressure to steer the Afghan government and the Taliban toward peace talks.Prior to the recent spate of large-scale attacks, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters that the strategy had led to more progress in the last year for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan that had not been "seen in the previous 17 years, and that is significant."That progress was enhanced by the three-day ceasefire in June called by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that surprisingly took hold throughout Afghanistan. That ceasefire and the indelible images of Taliban fighters and Afghan soldiers hugging has led to indications that Ghani will call for a second ceasefire later this month.However, it remains unclear if the Taliban actually will engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.For now, the Taliban has expressed more of a willingness to engage the United States.In recent weeks, Taliban officials have confirmed that Taliban representatives met with U.S. diplomats in Qatar to discuss the possibility of further peace talks.While this week's attacks indicate the Taliban is capable of attacks that can inflict heavy casualties, the overall violence level in Afghanistan is lower than in recent years.According to O'Donnell, the violence trends in Afghanistan right now remain 5 to 10 percent below historical averages, even accounting for the increase since the ceasefire and this week's attacks.Even if there is momentum toward peace talks, it's possible that some segments of the Taliban won't be interested."We've seen that in the past few days, the devastating effect that bad actors can have on the peace process," said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. She blamed this week's uptick in large-scale attacks on "some factions, some elements of the Taliban that are clearly not on board with peace." She added, "I think we are seeing them act out at this time.""We're committed to finding a political solution to end the conflict in Afghanistan," Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said during Wednesday's briefing. "We're exploring all avenues for dialogue in close coordination with the Afghan government." </s> HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan forces abandoned a remote district in the west of the country, leaving the area to Taliban insurgents after the government failed to resupply dozens of troops stationed there, provincial officials said on Wednesday.

Local officials said the Shebkoh district of Farah province, bordering Iran, has been under Taliban siege for months, making it difficult for the government to send reinforcements.

Mosa Nazari, deputy governor of Farah, said Afghanistan’s military leadership faced difficulty supplying and reinforcing the troops in Shebkoh district and it had been decided to withdraw in order to avoid casualties.

“The plan to leave the district was there for months and it was finally decided,” Nazari told Reuters, adding that the forces withdrew all ammunition and vehicles to the provincial capital of Farah.

U.S. military advisers have regularly pressed Afghan commanders to concentrate their forces and avoid exposed outposts that are difficult to defend and supply.

The Taliban, fighting to drive out foreign forces and re-impose its version of strict Islamic Law, said in a statement the Afghan government abandoned the district after a heavy firefight overnight, and the group seized an amount of ammunition.

A sparsely populated province, Farah has been the scene of intense fighting since the beginning of the year. Afghan forces have suffered heavy losses, including the killings of dozens of well-armed elite special forces there.

Shebkoh is a route for narcotics being smuggled from Helmand, the main source of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, to Farah and Iran.

Afghan officials have accused Tehran, which the United States says is trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan, of providing the insurgents with money, modern weapons and explosives. Iran denies the accusation.

Areas of western Afghanistan have seen heavy fighting in recent days. Last week, at least 14 Afghan soldiers were killed and 20 captured when Taliban fighters attacked an outpost in Shindand district in Herat, the province neighboring Farah.

Afghan and foreign forces have recently increased air strikes, targeting and killing senior Taliban commanders, including the powerful shadowy governor of Helmand province last week.

U.S. diplomatic efforts to begin peace talks with the Taliban have picked up with appointment by Washington of Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Kabul, as a special peace envoy.
One day after peace talks between the Taliban and the United States ended with no resolution, Taliban militants attack government outposts in northwestern Afghanistan, killing at least twelve Afghan soldiers.