Kabul : At least 23 people, mostly soldiers, were killed and more than a dozen wounded in a series of attacks and suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, the latest assaults on the war-torn country’s beleaguered security forces.

In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

“Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area,” defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said, reports AFP.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Deputy provincial governor Younus Rasooli said the authorities had sent a fact-finding delegation to Bala Buluk to investigate the assault.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

“At around 8:30 am, a suicide bomber on foot, well-dressed with a necktie on, was identified at a checkpoint. He blew up his explosives, killing three and wounding five others,” he said, updating an earlier toll.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The Bala Buluks located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

“I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me,” a witness told Tolonews TV adding that security forces had since swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

The Islamic State group, which is trying to make inroads in Afghanistan, claimed the responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In two other attacks on Saturday in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said. In the first incident, militants used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak told AFP.

“Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded,” he said.The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption The attack began with a suicide bombing

At least 13 people have been killed and dozens wounded after Taliban fighters attacked a police headquarters in northern Afghanistan on Sunday.

A suicide bomber driving a Humvee loaded with explosives started the assault in the city of Pul-e-Khumri.

Clashes between gunmen and security services followed.

The attack came days after the Taliban rejected a ceasefire offered by the country's government and backed by the US.

Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said eight Taliban fighters were shot dead.

More than 50 people were wounded, 20 of them civilians. Children were among the dead, an Afghan health official said.

The Taliban, which wants strict Islamic rule in the country, said it was behind the bloodshed.

The group carries out frequent attacks on Afghan forces and now controls more territory than at any point since it was toppled from power in 2001.

Officials say armed Taliban fighters entered the police headquarters after an explosion at its gate before firing on Afghan security services inside.

The group is known to use armoured vehicles laden with explosives to target military and police facilities.

The militants have been holding peace talks with a US envoy in Qatar since October with the goal of ending the long-running war in Afghanistan.

Last week, the Taliban turned down a ceasefire agreement proposed by President Ashraf Ghani and Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy for peace in the country. </s> KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan forces battled for hours against Taliban insurgents who stormed a police headquarters in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri, after a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car, killing at least 13 people, officials said on Sunday.

A Taliban militant detonated his Humvee vehicle at the entrance of the police office before a group of eight attackers armed with machine guns rushed in the building, two Afghan officials said.

“Thirteen policemen were killed and 35 others injured,” said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Kabul, adding that 20 civilians were also wounded.

“The complex attack on Baghlan police headquarters has ended with the death of all nine attackers, including the suicide bomber,” he said.

The Taliban, which is seeking to restore strict Islamic rule and expel foreign forces from Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in a busy area of the city with many other residential and commercial buildings.

Taliban fighters frequently capture U.S.-made armored Humvee vehicles from Afghan forces to load with explosives and use as car bombs to breach military fortifications.

Abdul Aleem Ghafari, deputy provincial health director in Pul-e-Khumri, said women and children were among those killed by the blast.

Sunday’s raid was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan this year and put heavy pressure on the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on security installations, even as they hold sixth rounds of direct talks with U.S. officials to end the war in Afghanistan.

This week, the group rejected appeals made last week by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the U.S. special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to declare a ceasefire in the 17-year conflict.

Afghan-born U.S. diplomat Khalilzad is leading the talks with the Taliban in Doha to pursue a deal that would bring the withdrawal of foreign forces in return for Taliban security guarantees.

“All sides agreeing to reduce violence is a necessary step toward achieving that outcome and the morally responsible choice to make. We stand ready,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Khalilzad’s comments came a day after Ghani said he was prepared to call an “immediate” and “permanent” ceasefire.

The Taliban said they will not lay down their arms ahead of the holy month of Ramadan and rejected to hold talks with the Afghan government which they consider an illegitimate “puppet” regime.

Direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban collapsed in 2015.

“A ceasefire will only get discussed once a deal about foreign force withdrawal gets finalized,” Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s Doha-based political spokesman, told Reuters.

About 45,000 Afghan security forces have been killed since Ghani took office in September 2014.

The hardline Islamists group now holds sway over more territory than at any point since its ousting by U.S.-led troops after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

The Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan consists of 17,000 troops, about half of them from the United States. A smaller number of U.S. troops operate in Afghanistan under a counter-terrorism mission.

The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, on Sunday, called on all parties to halt the fighting before Ramadan.

On Sunday, Ghani spoke with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan to secure fresh backing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, hours after Afghanistan’s foreign ministry summoned a senior Pakistani diplomat over cross-border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan troops.

Relations between neighbors, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been plagued by mistrust and at times hostility since Pakistan’s independence in 1947.

For years, Afghanistan and the United States have accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban as a way for Pakistan to limit the influence of its old rival, India, in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s role in the ongoing peace negotiations is a delicate one, with Islamabad seeking to avoid showcasing any kind of broad influence over the Taliban.

Khan’s office in a statement said the two leaders exchanged views on matters relating to peace, security, and prosperity in Afghanistan and the region.

“The Prime Minister (Imran Khan) underlined that Pakistan will spare no effort to advance the common objectives of building peace in Afghanistan and having a fruitful bilateral relationship between the two brotherly countries,” it stated.

Ghani is expected to travel to Pakistan, but travel dates were not made public. </s> AT LEAST 23 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in multiple suicide bombings and attacks in Afghanistan, officials said, the latest in a series of assaults in the war-torn country.

In the biggest attack, Taliban militants stormed an army base in the western province of Farah overnight, killing at least 18 soldiers.

“Last night a big group of militants attacked an army base in Bala Buluk district of Farah. Unfortunately, we lost 18 soldiers, two soldiers were wounded. We have sent more reinforcements to the area,” defence ministry spokesman Daulat Wazir said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Deputy provincial governor Younus Rasooli said the authorities had sent a fact-finding delegation to Bala Buluk to investigate the assault.

In another attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near the diplomatic area of Kabul during the morning rush hour, killing at least three people and wounding five others, deputy interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

“At around 8:30 am, a suicide bomber on foot, well-dressed with a necktie on, was identified at a checkpoint. He blew up his explosives, killing three and wounding five others,” he said, updating an earlier toll.

A security source who requested not to be named said the explosion happened near a compound belonging to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Afghan intelligence agency. The NDS compound is located near the NATO headquarters and the US embassy.

“I was driving nearby when I heard a big explosion, the windows of my car were smashed. I saw several wounded people on the street near me,” a witness told Tolonews TV adding that security forces had since swarmed the area, closing off the main road leading to the attack site.

In December, a suicide attacker on foot blew himself up near the same compound, killing at least six civilians.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in Kabul, which in recent months has become one of the deadliest places in Afghanistan for civilians.

Since mid-January, militants have stormed a luxury hotel, bombed a crowded street and raided a military compound in the capital, killing more than 130 people as the city remains on high alert fearing further violence.

In two other attacks in volatile southern Helmand province, suicide car bombs killed at least two soldiers and wounded more than a dozen others, officials said.

In the first incident, militants used a Humvee to attack an army base in Nad Ali district but the vehicle was destroyed when soldiers identified it and hit it with a rocket propelled grenade, provincial spokesman Omar Zawak told AFP.

“Unfortunately, two soldiers were killed in the attack and seven wounded,” he said.

The Nad Ali attack was followed by a second suicide car bombing in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah that wounded seven people.

The attack was against an NDS compound and near a police headquarters in the city, Helmand police spokesman Salaam Afghan told AFP.

The Taliban claimed both attacks in Helmand.

Militants including the Taliban and the Islamic State group have stepped up their attacks on beleaguered Afghan troops and police in recent months, sapping morale already hit by desertions and corruption.

Afghan soldiers have taken what the UN describes as “shocking” casualties since international forces ended their combat role at the end of 2014, though troop casualty figures are no longer released.

Read: Explainer: Why UK Brexiteers have been told to ‘sod off’ away from the Good Friday Agreement > </s> At least 11 persons were killed as suicide bombers attacked Maiduguri, the Borno state capital on Thursday night, witnesses and security sources said.

Nine suicide bombers were among the dead, they said.

Multiple explosions echoed across the city at about 11 p.m. on Thursday as three female suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts near Muna Garage, a popular bus station that has suffered many of such attacks in recent times.

The explosions killed two residents, witnesses said. But police said only the suicide bombers were killed in the attack.

Several commercial vehicles that were on queue for a trip to the border areas the next day were also razed in the explosion.

A witness, who identified himself as Ayuba Ibrahim, told journalists that seven Civilian-JTF operatives were injured, while all the suicide bombers died.

“But most of the trucks that were loaded with goods for export to Chad and the border communities were destroyed and commodities worth millions of naira may have been destroyed,” said Mr. Ibrahim, a businessman from Taraba State.

Civilian-JTF operatives said few hours after the Muna explosions, soldiers at Muna Dalti, a location about 1 kilometre away from the first explosion, shot six suicide bombers who were attempting to sneak into town at about 2 a.m.

Some Boko Haram gunmen who were riding on motorcycles accompanied the six suicide bombers, they said.

The spokesman for the Borno command, Victor Isukwu, a deputy superintendent of police, said only the suicide bombers died in the attack.

“Yesterday at about 2318hrs, a suicide bomber sneaked into the midst of 13 pick up trucks loaded with goods along Maiduguri/Mafa road, said to be awaiting departure to Gamboru Ngala early hours of today and detonated IEDs strapped on self,” he said.

“The resulting Explosion razed down the parked vehicles beyond recognition. EOD/Police patrol team was promptly deployed to the scene to restore safety & normalcy.

He also confirmed that soldiers had in the night spotted some persons on motorcycle and opened fire in their direction. </s> Three explosions struck the Afghan capital on Sunday, including a sticky bomb attached to a bus carrying university students that killed at least one person, Afghan officials said. The bus explosion wounded ten people, including an Afghan reporter, said Nasrat Rahimi, spokesman for the interior ministry. Two roadside bombs were detonated about 20 minutes later, wounding seven more people, including five security forces in the same residential area of western Kabul.

Several houses and shops around the blast sites were damaged, and security forces blocked all roads leading to the site.

Wahidullah Mayar, spokesman for the public health ministry, said at least four women were wounded in the bus bombing an had been taken to hospitals. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but both Taliban and Islamic State militants are active in the capital and have staged attacks in Kabul.

In a separate attack late Saturday in eastern Ghazni province, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a stolen Humvee packed with explosives inside a police reserve unit compound, killing at least seven police personnel, said Nasr Ahmad Faqeri, head of Ghazni’s provincial council. He added that eight other police were wounded in the attack on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Ghazni city.The suicide bomber was able to enter the compound using a stolen Humvee,

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack in Ghazni. In recent days, Kabul has witnessed a wave of attacks. A Taliban suicide car bomber targeted a U.S. convoy on Friday in an eastern neighborhood, killing four Afghan civilians wounding three others, as well as lightly wounding four American forces. On Thursday, six people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an Afghan army academy and training center.

Attacks by the Taliban have continued unabated despite peace talks with the United States as well as a fresh round of talks with Afghan notables last week in the Russian capital, Moscow. The Taliban have rejected repeated demands for a cease fire, saying the fighting will continue until U.S. and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan. </s> GHAZNI, Afghanistan: A suicide car bombing killed eight Afghan police officers and wounded seven others after targeting a police station in the country’s eastern Ghazni province, an official confirmed Sunday.

The blast happened at about 2150 hrs Saturday, when a hijacked military vehicle packed with explosives struck to provincial Reserve Police Force station in Esfandi area, some 6 km to the provincial capital Ghazni city, killing eight police personnel and wounding seven others, Adam Khan Sirat, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

“Unfortunately, eight personnel of Police Reserve Force unit were martyred and seven others suffered injuries, when a Taliban hijacked Humvee vehicle full of explosives slammed the police military unit building, in the provincial capital Ghazni,” the spokesman confirmed.

Few weeks ago, an explosive-packed Humvee also went off near a police checkpoint on outskirts of the city, killing two police officers and wounding 15 people. (AGENCIES) </s> GHAZNI, Afghanistan, June 2: A suicide car bombing killed eight Afghan police officers and wounded seven others after targeting a police station in the country’s eastern Ghazni province, an official confirmed Sunday.

The blast happened at about 2150 hrs Saturday, when a hijacked military vehicle packed with explosives struck to provincial Reserve Police Force station in Esfandi area, some 6 km to the provincial capital Ghazni city, killing eight police personnel and wounding seven others, Adam Khan Sirat, provincial police spokesman, told Xinhua.

“Unfortunately, eight personnel of Police Reserve Force unit were martyred and seven others suffered injuries, when a Taliban hijacked Humvee vehicle full of explosives slammed the police military unit building, in the provincial capital Ghazni,” the spokesman confirmed.

Few weeks ago, an explosive-packed Humvee also went off near a police checkpoint on outskirts of the city, killing two police officers and wounding 15 people.

 (AGENCIES) </s> Two suicide bombers were killed on Thursday by the Nigerian Army as they tried to sneak into Maiduguri, the Borno‎ State capital.

 The army killed the dreaded members of the Boko Haram terrorist sect at the Mafa military checkpoint, about nine kilometres from the state capital as they tried to storm into town.

 ‎However, as Muna town heaved a sigh of relief, tragedy struck again as three teenage suicide bombers, who had successfully snuck into town, detonated their explosives.

 One of the girls detonated hers at the Muna motor park.‎ The other two attacked Muna Dalti, a community located opposite Muna Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, killing two and injuring eight members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).

 A Civilian JTF, Muhammadu Idris, told The Nation that the suicide bombers first struck around 11:30 pm at Muna Motor Park while the other attacks occurred at Muna Dalti around 2:00 a.m. this morning.

 ‎The Nation findings revealed that so far, five people have been killed including the suicide bombers.

 ‎Police Public Relations Officer, Victor Isuku, confirmed the incident although he stated that just one suicide bomber was killed.

 “Yesterday at about 2318hrs, a suicide bomber sneaked into the midst of 13 pick up trucks loaded with goods along Maiduguri/Mafa road, said to be awaiting departure to Gamboru Ngala early hrs of today and detonated IEDs strapped on self. The resulting explosion razed down the parked vehicles beyond recognition. EOD/Police patrol team were promptly deployed to the scene to restore safety & normalcy,” he said.

 The Nation however, authoritatively reports that the police arrived the scene around 8.30 am, about eight hours after the incident.
A suicide bomber driving a Humvee detonated the vehicle loaded with explosives near a security building in Afghanistan, killing 8 officers.