News / Afghanistan

Eight killed as Taliban attack govt. offices in southern Afghanistan

Wednesday, 09 March 2016 11:13 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 12 March 2016 7:17 AM ]

Taliban militants are presented to the media in the Afghan capital city of Kabul, January 5, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

At least eight people have been killed in Afghanistan in a string of coordinated attacks by the Taliban militant group against government offices in the country’s southern province of Helmand.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman, a senior provincial security official, said 10 men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosive-laden jackets arrived on board vehicles in the town of Gereshk, 600 kilometers (375 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, at around 6:00 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) on Wednesday.

He added that the militants seized a building and fired on the district governor’s office, a police station and the nearby educational department, before security forces pushed them back.

Those killed in the exchange of gunfire between Taliban terrorists and Afghan security personnel included seven attackers and one policeman, Qahraman said.

He did nto say whether any explosions took place as well.

The top security official went on to say that three security force members were also wounded during the clashes.

On March 1, at least four police officers lost their lives in an attack by a man clad in an Afghan police uniform at a remote highway checkpoint in the country’s beleaguered central province of Uruzgan.

Mohammad Akbar Shinwari, the acting head of Uruzgan’s police department, said the incident took place on the main highway connecting Uruzgan to the neighboring province of Kandahar.

Taliban claimed responsibility for the act of violence.

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity more than 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.

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