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Taliban raid kills 10 Afghan troops in Kandahar

A file photo of Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province

At least 10 Afghan soldiers have been killed and nine others wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

A Defense Ministry statement said on Tuesday that militants had attacked the Achakzai camp of army corps 205 in Shah Wali Kot district in southern Kandahar Province the night before, killing 10 soldiers and wounding nine others.

A local security source was, however, cited in Afghan press reports as saying that 11 soldiers had lost their lives in the Monday night attack.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri separately said that Afghan troops battled the Taliban militants for several hours, killing at least 12 of them.

Earlier, on Sunday, six police officers were killed and three more wounded in another Taliban attack in the southern Helmand Province, local authorities confirmed Tuesday.

A file photo of Afghan soldiers during an operation in Kandahar Province

The deadly attack took place in the Sangin district of the province when a number of the militants raided a police checkpoint and clashed with security forces, Provincial Police Chief Aqa Noor Kentozai said.

“The insurgents also took Abdul Malek, the commander of the check post, with them after he was injured in the clash,” said Kentozai.

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The number of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan climbs drastically every spring, when the militants increasingly target government officials and US-led foreign forces in the country. Many ordinary people often fall victim to such attacks as well.

Over 1,000 members of Afghan security forces as well as over 700 civilians have so far been killed this year, according to Afghan authorities and figures cited by the US-based Congressional watchdog Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).        

The US military is considering whether to deploy 3,000 to 5,000 more military advisers to help train and assist Afghan security forces battling a 16-year militancy by the Taliban after a US-led military invasion ousted the group from power in 2001.


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