29 Afghan security personnel killed in renewed clashes with Taliban

A series of renewed attacks by the Taliban have claimed the lives of at least 29 members of Afghan security forces across the violence-wracked country after the Kabul government killed dozens of the group’s militants in the weekend assaults.

Reuters news agency, quoting an unnamed security source, reported on Wednesday that at least 15 members of the Afghan army were killed after the Taliban carried out attacks on security checkpoints in the northern province of Kunduz on Tuesday night.

Separately, the Taliban also raided a police station on Monday night in Pul-e Khomri, capital of the neighboring Baghlan province. Safdar Muhseni, head of the provincial council, confirmed that at least 14 policemen were killed in that assault.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for both attacks. The group's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said 35 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed in the attack in Kunduz and 17 in Baghlan.

Afghan forces and the Taliban also clashed on Tuesday when security personnel tried to access the site of a crashed US military plane in Ghazni province. The Taliban claimed they repelled the security forces who were trying for the second time to reach the wreckage site in the militants' stronghold.

Taliban repel Afghan forces’ attempt to reach US spy plane crash site

The Taliban say they have repelled Afghan government forces’ attempt to reach the site of a crashed US spy plane in Ghazni province.

US forces were later able to access the site and recover the remains of two personnel and what is believed to be the flight data recorder.

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the government forces had killed more than 50 militants in the multiple ground and air assaults against the Taliban at the weekend.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and overthrew the Taliban regime that was in power at the time. But US forces have remained bogged down there through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump.

Some 19 years on, Washington is seeking a truce with the militants, who now control or have influence in about half of Afghanistan’s territory. The Taliban have rejected calls for a ceasefire and instead stepped up operations across the country over the past few months. 

The Taliban have been negotiating with the Trump administration for more than a year over the withdrawal of US troops in exchange for security guarantees from the militants.

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Negotiations began last year in the Qatari capital Doha, but have been interrupted at least twice after Taliban attacks on US military personnel in September and December.

Last week, another round of talks kicked off with US Special Representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad meeting repeatedly with the Taliban's chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

In bilateral talks, which had excluded the Afghan government, US forces withdrawal from Afghanistan had been the main Taliban demand.

Nearly 20,000 US-led foreign troops, most of them Americans, are currently deployed in Afghanistan as part of a so-called mission to purportedly train, assist, and advise Afghan security forces.

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