19 police, 7 soldiers dead in ongoing Afghan siege: Official
At least 19 policemen and seven soldiers have been killed in an attack by the Taliban militants who have surrounded a police compound in an ongoing siege in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official says.
According to a report by The Associated Press, the raid took place on Monday in the Nawzad district of the province of Helmand.
Napas Khan, the police chief in the district who is inside the compound, told the news agency in a phone conversation that the militants are near the site, adding, “We need an immediate response from the government.”
The militants have reportedly seized police vehicles and weapons, closing all roads out of Nawzad.
The group, which has intensified its attacks as part of its annual spring offensive, has a strong presence in Helmand.
The militants have increased their deadly assaults across Afghanistan since late April despite an operation launched by Afghan government forces in March.
Earlier on Monday, 11 people were killed and dozens of others injured in a truck bomb attack and a separate roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan.
On May 19, a Taliban car bomb blast in the parking lot of the Justice Ministry in the capital Kabul claimed four lives. Fourteen people were also killed in a Taliban attack on a Kabul guest house on May 13.
Afghanistan faces a security challenge years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed Taliban from power, but many areas in the country are still witnessing increasing violence.
MR/MHB/AS
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