Over 70 Afghan government troops killed in Taliban attacks
GBNEWS24 DESK//
More than 70 government security forces have been killed across Afghanistan in Taliban attacks during the past two days alone, officials said Tuesday, even as negotiators from both sides engage in direct peace talks to end decades of war.
“The Taliban have increased their raids since the start of the talks and, as the defense minister said recently, the reason for it is to seek concessions at the negotiation table which is impossible to gain through violence and killing,” Fawad Aman, Defense Ministry spokesman, told Arab News.
He said that government troops, who were on “active defense status” because of the ongoing talks in Qatar, were forced to respond and managed to foil Taliban attacks and inflict heavy losses.
The Taliban had the intention of capturing towns and districts from the government, like it had done in the past, while the talks were going on in Qatar, but they had not succeeded and faced a tough response from security forces, Aman added.
Tariq Aryan, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said that while the Taliban had carried out attacks in 24 out of 34 provinces since the start of the talks last week, seven provinces had come under renewed assault in the past 48 hours.
Southern Uruzgan has been the site of the worst strikes, which began on Sunday night and continued until early Tuesday morning, he said.
“At least 24 government forces were killed after the Taliban stormed their posts on Sunday night,” Uruzgan’s deputy governor, Sayed Mohammad Sadat, was reported as saying by local media.
Overnight, at least 14 more government troops were killed in a separate Taliban attack in Gizab district, the governor’s spokesman Zergai Ebadi said on Tuesday.
Comments are closed.