Taliban fighters killed 18 Afghan soldiers -- including some who were beheaded -- after storming an army outpost in the remote mountainous northeast in a major attack before the spring fighting season, officials said on Monday.
The attack in the Jurm district of Badakhshan province on Friday also left around a dozen soldiers missing, fuelling speculation they had been captured by insurgents. Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets since Washington backpedalled on plans to shrink the US force in Afghanistan this year by nearly half. “Eighteen Afghan soldiers were martyred and eight of them were beheaded” on Friday, provincial spokesman Naweed Frotan told AFP, saying 200 fighters stormed the post.
“Our rescue operations are continuing to track down and bring back the security forces who went missing in the assault.”
The defence ministry confirmed the incident in a statement and said the fighting left a total of 33 Afghan soldiers dead, wounded or missing.
Twenty Taliban, including foreign fighters, were killed in the battle, deputy provincial police chief Sakhidad Haidar told AFP.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which highlights Afghanistan’s precarious security situation as US-led foreign troops pull back from the frontlines after a 13-year war against the insurgents.
Afghanistan is bracing for what is expected to be a bloody summer push by the Taliban, set to be the first fighting season in which Afghan security forces will battle insurgents without full NATO support.
NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security forces. President Barack Obama last month announced a delay in US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, an overture to the country’s new reform-minded leader, President Ashraf Ghani.
The attack in the Jurm district of Badakhshan province on Friday also left around a dozen soldiers missing, fuelling speculation they had been captured by insurgents. Taliban insurgents have stepped up attacks on government and foreign targets since Washington backpedalled on plans to shrink the US force in Afghanistan this year by nearly half. “Eighteen Afghan soldiers were martyred and eight of them were beheaded” on Friday, provincial spokesman Naweed Frotan told AFP, saying 200 fighters stormed the post.
“Our rescue operations are continuing to track down and bring back the security forces who went missing in the assault.”
The defence ministry confirmed the incident in a statement and said the fighting left a total of 33 Afghan soldiers dead, wounded or missing.
Twenty Taliban, including foreign fighters, were killed in the battle, deputy provincial police chief Sakhidad Haidar told AFP.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which highlights Afghanistan’s precarious security situation as US-led foreign troops pull back from the frontlines after a 13-year war against the insurgents.
Afghanistan is bracing for what is expected to be a bloody summer push by the Taliban, set to be the first fighting season in which Afghan security forces will battle insurgents without full NATO support.
NATO’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security forces. President Barack Obama last month announced a delay in US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, an overture to the country’s new reform-minded leader, President Ashraf Ghani.