The Taliban militant group has killed at least 10 policemen amid violent clashes in the central Afghan province of Wardak.
Officials said on Sunday that fighting continued in Wardak a day after Taliban fighters blew up bridges and took over control of arterial highways.
The Taliban set fire to a government building in Wardak’s Sayeed Abad district and killed the district’s police chief along with nine other policemen on Saturday night, a senior police official said.
Repeated assaults on strategically important provinces, such as Wardak and the nearby Ghazni, underscore how volatile security remains in Afghanistan two weeks before nationwide parliamentary elections.
Abdul Rahman Mangal, a spokesman for the Wardak governor’s office, said the Taliban raided some civilian houses after killing the 10 policemen, destroyed newly-built checkpoints and cut major power lines in the area, leaving the Sayeed Abad district and surrounding provinces without electricity.
He said government forces had staged a counter-attack to stop the militants from approaching the city.
Mohammad Arif Noori, a spokesman for Ghazni’s governor, said one soldier was killed by Taliban militants as they tried to gain control over parts of the province nearly two months after being pushed back from the city by US-backed Afghan forces.
The Taliban attacked Ghazni — a strategically important center straddling the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s south — in August.
It was the largest terrorist operation launched by the Taliban militants since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015, killing hundreds of Afghan civilians.
Afghan people face insecurity 16 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.
Although the Taliban militant group was removed from power as a result of the invasion, the country remains occupied and many areas are still threatened by insecurity.