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. “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 Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Helmand province which is notorious for growing poppy and militancy. 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. 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. 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. 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.
A series of militant attacks in Afghanistan kill more than 20 people.