Afghan forces, Taliban engage in fatal fights for turfs

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - With a proposed peace deal on the cards in Qatar, the Taliban insurgents and Afghan security forces on Monday claimed inflicting fatal attacks on each other in Afghanistan.

In the past 24 hours, the Taliban claimed killing more than 30 security forces personnel while the government forces vowed to have killed more than 50 insurgents in air and ground offensives.

The Ministry of Defense on Monday claimed killing over 40 Taliban insurgents in the restive Bilcharagh district of the restive northern Faryab province bordering Turkmenistan.

The Taliban have been staging large-scale coordinated assaults in northern Badakhshan, Takhar, Kunduz, Jawzjan and Faryab province.

The Afghan National Army’s 205 – Maiwand Corps said in a statement on Monday that 17 Taliban insurgents were killed in southern Zabul and Uruzgan provinces.

On the part of the Taliban, the group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed in a series of social media posts that more than 30 government forces have been killed in different parts of the country. The deadliest insurgent attacks were orchestrated in Jawzjan and Kandahar provinces leaving at least 24 security forces killed, officials and local media confirmed.

This comes as the U.S. delegation led by seasoned diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad continues peace talks with the Taliban for the proposed deal of troops’ withdrawal, security guarantees, ceasefire and intra-Afghan dialogue.

The UN mission said in a report on Saturday that as peace efforts have intensified in recent weeks, so too has the conflict on the ground.

UN findings showed that more than 1,500 civilians were killed and injured, the highest number of any month this year, and the highest since May 2017. The main driver in July was a sharp rise in civilian casualties caused by anti-government elements, it said.

In a statement, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN special representative for Afghanistan, urged all parties not to ramp up military operations in the belief that doing so will give them a stronger position in peace talks.