![Mourners carry the coffin of an Afghan border guard killed by Taliban fighters during a burial ceremony in Dand Patan District of Paktia Province on May 29. Taliban fighters stormed an Afghan border post that day, killing at least 14 security force members, the insurgents and officials said, representing the latest in a series of attacks since the end of a brief ceasefire. [STR/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2020/06/15/24549-000_1si0pj-739_416.webp)
KABUL -- The Taliban have killed or wounded more than 400 Afghan security personnel in the past week, the Interior Ministry said Sunday (June 14), accusing the insurgents of increasing attacks ahead of expected peace talks.
Violence had dropped across much of Afghanistan since the Taliban announced a three-day ceasefire on May 24 to mark the Eid ul Fitr holiday, but officials have accused the insurgents of stepping up violence in recent days.
"In the past one week, the Taliban carried out 222 attacks against the Afghan security forces, resulting in the death and injury of 422" personnel, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said at a press conference.
He accused the Taliban of targeting religious scholars in a bid to put "psychological pressure" on the Afghan government.
![Policemen stand guard outside the Sher Shah Suri Mosque in Kabul after a bomb ripped through a crowd during Friday prayers June 12, killing at least four people. [STR/AFP]](/cnmi_st/images/2020/06/15/24550-000_1tb5y5-739_416.webp)
Policemen stand guard outside the Sher Shah Suri Mosque in Kabul after a bomb ripped through a crowd during Friday prayers June 12, killing at least four people. [STR/AFP]
Bombings of Kabul mosques that killed two prayer leaders this month were the work of the insurgents, Arian said.
"This has been the goal of the Taliban -- to target religious scholars, especially in the past two weeks," he said, accusing the militants of being an "umbrella group for other terrorist networks".
On June 12, four people including a prayer leader were killed when a blast ripped through a mosque in Kabul during the weekly prayers.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, which came just over a week after an attack claimed by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) at a mosque on the edge of Kabul's heavily fortified Green Zone killed a prominent prayer leader.
The Taliban condemned both terror acts.
After initially reporting a drop in overall violence following the ceasefire, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal June 14 said the Taliban "have not reduced, but rather increased their attacks across the country".
The insurgents killed 89 civilians and wounded 150 in the past two weeks, the council said June 13.
Taliban attacks on upswing
Both the Taliban and Afghan forces honoured the ceasefire during Eid, said Interior Minister Masood Andarabi.
"But after Eid, the Taliban attacks slowly started rising to its previous recorded numbers as before Eid," he told AFP.
"The Taliban are now looking for any targets or opportunities to attack, kidnap and assassinate Afghan officials," he said.
The Taliban are conducting more than 60 attacks every 24 hours, he said, adding that insurgent fighters were coming from areas in Waziristan and Balochistan, Pakistan.
The Taliban acknowledged targeting security forces but insisted the level remained low.
The Taliban have not claimed responsibility for any major attacks on Afghan cities since February, when they signed a deal with US negotiators meant to pave the way for intra-Afghan peace talks.
The latest government accusations come after Kabul and the Taliban signalled that they were getting closer to launching delayed peace talks.
President Ashraf Ghani has vowed to complete a Taliban prisoner release that is a key condition to beginning the negotiations with the insurgents aimed at ending almost two decades of war.
The authorities already have released about 3,000 Taliban prisoners and plan to further free 2,000 as stipulated in the insurgents' deal with United States.
"Our position is that our remaining prisoners should be released before the beginning of intra-Afghan negotiation," said Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen.
Do not say that Taliban increased their attacks. Say that Pakistani army and ISI's militias increased their attacks on Afghan forces. If Taliban are independent, then what is the need of Bajwa's visit to Kabul?
Reply2 Comment
Taliban, ISIS, the Afghan government, the United States are all one. Miserable are only the poor and destitute people of Afghanistan who become the victims of proxy warfare every day. War neither inflicts damage on Taliban leaders who are living in luxurious buildings in Qatar, nor does it cause damage on the Afghan government leaders who have royal lives in Kabul, or on their families who are living in Turkey, Dubai, India, Europe and the United States. Afghanistan’s war does not cause loss for US leaders either. In this war, the children of Obama and Trump are not killed, but only the poor American soldiers are killed. The war in Afghanistan has been launched for the sinister goals of the countries of the region. For some powerful countries, this war has turned to a milking cow, and if this war ends, their cow will no longer give milk and their cow (their source of income) will dry up. You know that millions of bullets are fired every day in the war in Afghanistan, and these bullets are not produced in Afghanistan, because Afghanistan does not have even ordinary manufacturing factories. Most of the weapon and ammunition producing companies are in the United States, Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan and so on. So if the war in Afghanistan ends, where will these countries sell their weapons?
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