Taliban terrorists killed at least 35 Afghan soldiers and nine policemen after they attacked a military outpost in the country’s northern Baghlan province early Wednesday morning.
An additional 48 people were killed in a Taliban suicide bomb attack in front of an education center in the west of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Wednesday.
The attacks are just the latest in a series of assaults on Afghanistan’s security forces.
According to al Jazeera, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, head of the provincial council, reportedly said the Taliban fighters set fire to checkpoints after they waged their attack in the Baghlan-i Markazi district.
Two days prior, on Monday, the Taliban overran the Camp Chinaya military base, located in northern Faryab province, killing 17 soldiers and wounding 19 others.
On one of the worst places where fighting has taken place was in the southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni, where the Taliban has waged several deadly attacks, including one on Friday, after five days of street battles that reportedly left hundreds dead and wounded. After the Taliban essentially destroyed the province, the fighting had eased.
“My house was just near the front line, the Taliban would force people to bring them food and tea,” Hassan Safari, one of hundreds of residents who were forced to hide in their basements, told the AFP. “The fighting was intense. For two days, we had no water and no food. My children would cry when they heard booms and sounds of firing by Taliban from behind our wall.”
“Reports indicate that the casualty toll in Ghazni is immense,” the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan Tadamichi Yamamoto said Wednesday.
“Unconfirmed estimates range from 110 to 150 civilian casualties,” he said. “Reliable information indicates that the Ghazni Public Hospital is overwhelmed by a continuous influx of injured government forces, Taliban fighters and civilians.”
In addition to lack of access to water, Ghazni residents have little to no power and a slew of food shortages in the midst of a rising inflation.
The United States has reportedly killed over 220 Taliban fighters over the past five days, in response to their attempts to overrun Ghazni last week.
“From a U.S. Forces-Afghanistan perspective, U.S. airpower has killed more than 220 Taliban since August 10,” Resolute Support spokesman Army Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell said.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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