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. Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, the head of the provincial council in the northern Baghlan province, said the insurgents set fire to the checkpoints after the attack late Tuesday in the Baghlan-I Markazi district. Dilawar Aymaq, a parliamentarian from Baghlan, confirmed the attack, which targeted a military checkpoint and another manned by the so-called local police, militias recruited and paid by the Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, Afghans emerged from their homes and some shops reopened in the eastern city of Ghazni, where the Taliban launched a co-ordinated offensive last Friday, overwhelming the city’s defences and capturing several neighbourhoods. Afghan forces repelled the initial assault and in recent days have struggled to flush the insurgents out of residential areas where they are holed up. The U.S. and NATO have launched airstrikes and sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces as they fight for the city, which is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital, Kabul, and has a population of some 270,000 people. Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said on Wednesday that “life is getting back to normal” after at least 35 civilians were killed in recent days. But he said wounded people are still arriving at the city's only hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the casualties. Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in Ghazni, which has killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the southern Zabul province early Wednesday, killing four policemen, according to the provincial police chief, Mustafa Mayar, who said another three officers were wounded. He said seven attackers were killed and five were wounded during the battle, in which the Taliban used artillery and heavy weapons. 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. 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.
The Taliban attacks two units of Afghan security forces in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan Province, killing at least 39 soldiers and police officers.