7 officers killed in attack on Afghan police checkpoint
Seven police officers have been killed in an attack blamed on the Taliban militant group in Afghanistan’s central province of Ghor, officials say.
A checkpoint in Pasaband district came under attack late on Friday, said district police chief Fakhruddin on Saturday.
“They killed seven police officers, wounded one, and a policeman is missing,” he said, adding that the suspected Taliban assailants had managed to seize guns and ammunition before fleeing the scene.
The deputy governor of Ghor, Habibullah Radmanish, also confirmed the attack and the toll, blaming the militant group for the incident.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but it bears the hallmark of acts of terror carried out by Taliban.
The assault came hours after four people lost their lives in a bomb attack at the Sher Shah Suri Mosque, which is located in the western part of capital Kabul, during Friday prayers.
The Taliban militant group, which controls large parts of the country, and the Afghan government seem to have been moving closer toward potential peace talks.
The much-delayed negotiations, aimed at putting an end to the persisting conflict between the two sides, are expected to commence once both sides complete an ongoing prisoner swap, accelerated after a brief ceasefire last month.
The rare three-day truce, which marked the Eid al-Fitr holiday, was followed by an overall drop in violence across the country. However, authorities have blamed the Taliban for a number of deadly attacks in the past couple of weeks.
“While the government has continued to advance the cause of peace, the Taliban continued their campaign of violence against the Afghan people during Eid and the weeks after that,” said Javid Faisal, spokesman of the National Security Council on Saturday.
“In the last two weeks, they killed 89 civilians and wounded 150 across 29 provinces,” he added.
Official data shows Taliban bombings and other assaults have increased 70 percent since the militant group signed a deal with the United States in February.
Under the agreement, the US will withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, and the Taliban will refrain from attacking international occupying forces. The militants made no pledge to avoid attacking Afghan forces and civilians.
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