Taliban Fighters Attack Security Outposts In Northern Afghanistan

A government official in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Badakhshan has said that a group of about 100 Taliban fighters attacked several security outposts in the mountainous region in the past two days.

The province’s deputy governor, Gul Mohammad Bedar, said the attack started on June 23 in the Wardoj district and that two members of the Afghan security forces were killed.

Bedar said at least 21 militants, most of them foreigners, were killed and 13 were wounded.

He also said Qari Zabihullah, the commander of Taliban fighters in the area, was arrested.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying militants seized one security outpost and killed several police officers.

During the past year, mountainous paths from Pakistan into Badakhshan have become conduits into northern Afghanistan for Pakistani Taliban fighters and Center Asian militants who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State and have been fleeing a Pakistani military offensive in their former safe havens in Pakistan’s tribal regions.

With reporting by dpa and AFP