Taliban Attacks Kill 11 Troops, Police 04/24 06:05

   KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A new wave of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan 
killed at least 11 Afghan soldiers and policemen on Tuesday, officials said, 
the latest in a particularly deadly week of assaults by militants.

   At least five soldiers were killed when their checkpoint was attacked by the 
Taliban in western Farah province, according to Mohammad Naser Mehri, the 
provincial governor's spokesman.

   Two soldiers were wounded in that attack, in the Bala Buluk district. Mehri 
said six Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in the 
battle, which lasted several hours.

   "Reinforcements have arrived and right now, the situation is under control," 
he added.

   Earlier on Tuesday, insurgents killed at least four members of the local 
police force and wounded seven in eastern Ghazni province.

   The Taliban there targeted the local police security post in the province's 
district of Jaghatu, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor. He 
also said the gunbattle lasted several hours and that the Taliban used 
artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

   Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for both 
the Farah and the Ghazni attacks in messages to the media. He said the Taliban 
took two Afghan soldiers captive in the Farah attack but there was no immediate 
confirmation from the Afghan military on that.

   Later Tuesday, two policemen were killed and six soldiers were captured in 
attacks on their checkpoints in western Badghis province, said Mohammad Naser 
Nazari, a member of the provincial council.

   He blamed the Taliban and said insurgents there stormed several police and 
military checkpoints in Qadis district before reinforcements arrived and the 
situation was brought under control.

   It has been a particularly deadly week in Afghanistan.

   The Health Ministry in Kabul on Tuesday raised the death toll from a 
horrific suicide bombing by the Islamic State group earlier this week to 60, 
after three more of the wounded had died in hospital.

   The ministry also said the number of wounded from Sunday's attack, which 
targeted a voter registration center in Kabul, was now at 130 after all the 
data had been collected, including from private hospitals where the casualties 
were also taken after state hospitals became overwhelmed in the immediate 
aftermath of the bombing.

   Also, on Monday, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiers 
and policemen.


(KA)