[The Taliban attacks are intensifying at a time when Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy, is visiting Afghanistan to build a national consensus on the peace talks with the insurgents. Although the Americans have made progress in negotiations over two components of a deal, including withdrawing American troops from the country and barring terrorist groups from staging attacks on the United States and its allies from Afghan soil, the next steps in the peace process have proved difficult.]
By
Fahim Abed
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Afghan soldiers in
Badghis Province in 2017. The region has come under intense
pressure from the Taliban
in recent weeks, with officials warning that it could fall
without reinforcements. Credit
Hoshang Hashimi/Agence
France-Presse — Getty
Images
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KABUL,
Afghanistan — A large attack
by the Taliban in western Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 30 soldiers
and police officers, Afghan officials said, in a sign of intensifying spring
fighting across the country despite American efforts to reach a peace deal.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed the
center of Bala Murghab District in Badghis Province in the predawn hours,
according to Abdul Waris Shirzad, the district governor. The district has come
under intense insurgent pressure in recent weeks, with officials warning that
it could fall unless reinforcements are sent in.
“No one is hearing our voice; no
reinforcements arrived yet,” said Mr. Shirzad, who confirmed that 30 police
officers and soldiers had died in the Taliban raid.
He said the insurgents had surrounded police
forces in the governor’s office and soldiers on an army base. “If the
government does not send more forces, there will be a disaster in the
district,” he added.
Jamshid Shahabi, a spokesman for the governor
of Badghis, said “both sides suffered casualties” in the attack. He did not
provide casualty figures, but added, “The security situation is very bad
there.”
The Taliban attacks are intensifying at a
time when Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy, is visiting Afghanistan
to build a national consensus on the peace talks with the insurgents. Although
the Americans have made progress in negotiations over two components of a deal,
including withdrawing American troops from the country and barring terrorist
groups from staging attacks on the United States and its allies from Afghan
soil, the next steps in the peace process have proved difficult.
Although the insurgents have shown
flexibility in meeting Afghan officials as part of a larger informal delegation
to break the ice, the Taliban have so far refused to meet directly with the
Afghan government, and President Ashraf Ghani has demanded that his government
play a central role in the talks. The tense relationship between Mr. Ghani’s
government and the United States in recent weeks has not helped the situation.
The Taliban have made inroads into Bala
Murghab District, reaching its bazaar and attacking five security outposts.
Twenty-one soldiers were taken prisoner by the insurgents during the attack on
Thursday, according to a member of the Afghan Parliament, Ziauddin Akazi, who
is from the same district. “The district will collapse to the Taliban if
reinforcement does not arrive,” he stressed.
Qais Mangal, a spokesman for the Ministry of
Defense, said of the Taliban offensive, “Afghan forces retreated from several
outposts to avoid civilian casualties.”
On Thursday, the Afghan Air Force launched
airstrikes against the Taliban around the district, and the insurgents suffered
heavy casualties, Mr. Mangal said.
Violence also erupted in northern Afghanistan
on Thursday. In Baghlan Province, a doctor, Sayid Ali Ayat, was killed and 18
civilians wounded — including two women and two children — when explosives went
off in a health facility in Pul-i-Kumri City, the provincial capital, local
officials said.
Dr. Ayat, 50, had been the only psychiatrist
in the provincial hospital. Their numbers are already low amid high demand in a
country awash in post-traumatic stress syndrome. There are only three other
psychiatrists in the province, according to Abdul Halim Ghafari, the deputy of
the provincial health department.
In Jowzjan Province, the Taliban attacked a
security outpost in Faizabad District before dawn on Thursday, killing six
police officers and wounding another. Local authorities said that four Taliban
fighters were killed in the clashes.
Last Monday, dozens of Taliban fighters also
attacked security outposts in the district, killing 15 soldiers and wounding
seven others, local officials said. Two soldiers were taken prisoner by the
insurgents.
Mohammad Saber contributed reporting from
Herat, Afghanistan, Mujib Mashal from Kabul and Najim Rahim from Kunduz.
