Taliban step up attacks
Afghanistan has deployed more troops to a restive western province where a multi-billion-dollar pipeline is planned after the Taliban launched multiple attacks against security forces, causing heavy casualties, officials said yesterday.
The latest assault in Farah, which borders Iran, happened in the early hours of yesterday when Taliban militants stormed a checkpoint manned by police and intelligence officers on the outskirts of the provincial capital of the same name, killing seven security forces.
It came as the Taliban face growing pressure to take up Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's offer of peace talks to end the 16-year insurgency, but so far the group has given only a muted response.
"When commando forces were deployed they (the militants) retreated," Jamila Amini, a member of the Farah provincial council, told AFP.
Four members of the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's spy agency, and three police were killed, she added.
The incident and death toll were confirmed by fellow provincial council member Gul Ahmad Faqiri.
"We have sent more troops and commando forces to Farah to contain the situation," defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told AFP, adding the army chief of staff had also visited the province.
"The situation will soon come under control," he said.
Meanwhile, US General John Nicholson, who leads US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban have taken heavy casualties since US President Donald Trump authorised ramped-up air operations last year, pointing to increasingly effective Afghan commando and regular Afghan army units.
"In the Taliban's mind, they see what is coming and these capabilities are only going to get greater," Nicholson told reporters accompanying Mattis on a visit to Bagram Airfield, America's largest air base in Afghanistan that is located north of Kabul.
"So this really is probably their best time to attempt a negotiation, because it's only going to get worse for them," he added.
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