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>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>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>Kabul, Feb 24 (IANS) At least nine people, including three assailants, were killed and 22 others wounded in three separate suicide bombings in Afghanistan on Saturday, authorities said.

In one attack, one intelligence agency officer was killed and 16 civilians injured when a terrorist detonated a truck bomb in front of a provincial intelligence office in Lashkar Gah city, capital of southern Helmand province.

Thirteen children and two women were among the injured in the blast which occurred around 9 a.m. and also damaged several nearby buildings, the local media reported.

The deadly explosion followed a blast in Kabul in which one civilian and two soldiers died and five people injured.

The bombing took place at the entrance to a high-security area -- where embassies and offices of international organisations are located.

The bombing occurred when a man wearing an explosives jacket tried to enter the Green Zone but detonated his vest after being identified at a security checkpoint in Shash Darak, a diplomatic district in central Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told Tolo News.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group reportedly claimed responsibility for the Kabul attack.

In another incident, a militant detonated an explosives-laden hijacked military armoured vehicle at an Army camp in Nad Ali district, west of Lashkar Gah, killing two soldiers and injuring another one, according to Rahimi.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy.

The attacks came one day after the country started construction of a major gas project in western Herat province to transfer natural gas from Turkmenistan to neighbouring Pakistan and India.</s>A wave of attacks across Afghanistan has left more than 25 people dead, most of them soldiers, officials say.

In the worst incident, Taliban militants stormed an army post in the western province of Farah, killing 22 soldiers.

A suicide attack in the capital Kabul left at least three security officers dead.

There has been a surge in militant attacks in recent months and the army is often targeted.

Some analysts see it as a response to a new, more aggressive strategy announced by US President Donald Trump last year, which committed the US army to an open-ended conflict, with the focus on “killing terrorists”.

Early on Saturday, Taliban forces mounted an overnight attack on a base in Farah.

Weapons were seized and the Afghan military said the Taliban had incurred a “lot of casualties”.

In Kabul, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in an area dotted with key diplomatic buildings.

“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 Afghan channel Tolonews TV.

Jihadist group Islamic State said it carried out the attack, Reuters reported.

There were further suicide attacks in Helmand province in the south, leaving two army members dead, and others, including women and children, injured.

The Taliban control large swathes of Afghanistan – but IS militants hold sway in a much smaller number of districts.

However, both groups have demonstrated their ability to hit targets across the country.

They have often come into conflict with each other, too.</s>Taliban militants have attacked an Afghan Army outpost, killing 18 government soldiers, as the group continues to gain ground. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber has killed three and injured five others in the capital.

“A large number of Taliban attacked an army outpost and we lost 18 soldiers and two were wounded,” defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said on Saturday, as quoted by Reuters. The attack took place in the western province of Farah.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Friday attack. It said that two of its fighters were killed in the operation.

Meanwhile, a suicide blast in Kabul has become the latest in a spate of attacks across the Afghan capital. Three people were killed and five others wounded in the bombing, which occurred in Kabul’s Shashdarak area near the NATO headquarters, deputy interior ministry spokesperson Nusrat Rahimi said, as cited by TOLO News. Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed responsibility in a message on its Amaq news mouthpiece.

Also on Saturday, a car bomb attack in Helmand province killed at least one person and wounded eight others, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor. An attack on an army outpost in the province also killed two soldiers and wounded one.

It comes just one month after Taliban gunmen killed 20 people at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel, in an assault which led to a 12-hour standoff between gunmen and security forces. Just one week later, more than 100 people were killed and 235 others wounded in the capital when an explosives-packed ambulance blew up in a crowded area. Kabul has been on high alert since that attack.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has approved a new security plan for Kabul. However, it remains unknown what that plan entails, as the city of five million already has numerous checkpoints and vehicle restrictions.

Violence in Afghanistan has surged since US President Donald Trump outlined a more aggressive strategy for the country in August 2017, with US-led forces carrying out increased airstrikes and the Taliban responding with bombings, ambushes, and raids.

The Taliban has gained ground in Afghanistan in recent months, with a BBC study in January finding that the group is now active in 70 percent of the country. The Afghan government shrugged off the report, saying it controls most areas. The Pentagon did not directly comment on the report, but pointed to the latest figures by the NATO-led coalition which asserts that about 56 percent of Afghanistan’s territory is under Afghan government control or influence.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!</s>Two civilians were killed and seven were injured after a suicide bomber targeted the diplomatic area in Afghanistan’s Kabul on Saturday, AP reported. The Islamic State group has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least 18 soldiers were killed in another attack on a checkpoint in West Afghanistan’s Farah province. In a separate incident, three security personnel were killed in two suicide blasts in Helmand province, an official said.

Taliban spokesperson Qari Yusouf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the Helmand and Farah attacks.

The toll from the Kabul attack may rise, Interior Ministry spokesperson Najib Danish said. The blast site was near the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters in the country.

Taliban insurgents attacked the checkpoint in Farah province, Defence Ministry spokesperson Dawlat Waziri said. Two soldiers were injured in the attack.

Soldiers shot down one of the Helmand suicide bombers, but the explosive in his car detonated at the entrance of the Nad Aali district Army base before they could diffuse it, provincial governor’s spokesperson Omar Zwak said. Two people were wounded in the attack.

One security official succumbed to injuries sustained in the second suicide bomb attack at another military base in Helmand’s Lashkar Gah city. Seven civilians were injured in the attack, Zwak said.

There has been a spate of attacks in Afghanistan. At least five Afghan National Army soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in an attack at a military academy in Kabul on January 29. A suicide bombing in Kabul claimed 103 lives and left 235 people injured two days before the attack on the military academy. On January 20, Taliban militants had killed 22 people in a hotel in Kabul.</s>SPOILERS! Do not read on until you have seen the final episode of series one

McMafia’s series one finale certainly leaves room for a second series, with James Norton’s Alex Godman ruthlessly destroying his main opponent, Vadim Kalyagin, and establishing his position as a top Mafioso.

Find out whether there’s more McMafia in the pipeline, below…

Will there be a series two?

McMafia is a coproduction from the BBC and the US network AMC. According to the BBC, a decision will be made as to whether it will return for another series once the drama has aired in America. It premieres in the US on 26th February.

Watch this space – and in the meantime, have a watch of our interview with Misha Glenny, author of the book McMafia:
A series of militant attacks in Afghanistan kill more than 20 people.