KUNDUZ -- Ongoing Taliban attacks on security forces in northern Afghanistan have killed as many as 40 soldiers, officials said Thursday (July 12).
Militants simultaneously stormed several military bases and posts in Kunduz Province overnight, said Gen. Mohammad Radmanesh, a Defence Ministry spokesman, and other security sources.
"We have suffered casualties; the Taliban have also suffered casualties," Radmanesh said, adding that 10-15 Afghan soldiers had been killed.
Other Afghan security sources gave the troops' death toll as 39 and "more than 40".
The Taliban had night-vision goggles, a senior Afghan commander told AFP.
Separately, Afghan air strikes against the Taliban in Ghazni Province killed 2 insurgents, the Defence Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
Mullah Amir Khan Mutaqi, a minister in the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, was injured, it said.
