Afghanistan: Taliban militias attack a police base, 12 casualties - Like This Article

June 19th, 2017 - Fort Russ News -
- In Terris - - translated by Frederick Assar -

A new Taliban attack against Afghanistan's security forces struck a police base in the province of Paktia. The Islamic Emirate militants engaged the security forces in a ten-hour clash with a toll of 12 casualties (six agents and six militiamen) and 20 injured.

Six Taliban mujahidin, including a kamikaze, launched at dawn the attack on the provincial police headquarters in Gardez, capital of the Paktia province. Following a typical scheme, a terrorist detonated a van loaded with explosives, allowing the other five to penetrate the base. The explosion was so powerful, said the spokesman for the provincial government Abdullah Hsrat, that glass fragments from the windows were projected in a two-kilometre radius.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid linked the attack to the traditional Spring Offensive. The battle with the militants stretched into mid-afternoon. The government of President Ashraf Ghani, who on June 6 held an international conference called "Kabul Process" where he appealed to insurgents for dialogue, has to deal not only with attacks carried out by Taliban militants , but also with those claimed by Isis. Followers of Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed 150 people on May 31 in the capital and claimed responsibility for a three-man attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul, also taking control of the strategic area of Tora Bora for a few days - then lost to the security forces.

In recent months, according to information confirmed by the police, an American citizen, probably an agronomist engaged in a project of the World Bank-funded Agriculture Ministry, was kidnapped in Kabul. Neither the Afghan government nor the US embassy have yet commented on the event.

In addition, to make Afghanistan’s security picture even more alarming, Pakistan has revealed that two officials from the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, in the east of the country, have been missing since 16 June while traveling by car towards Pakistani territory.

Faced with this uncomfortable scenario, analysts now focus on the plans the White House has in store for Afghanistan. After being rumoured to send 4,000 more American soldiers to the country, the formalization and announcement of Trump’s new approach to the Afghan crisis should be imminent. Recently Secretary of Defense James Mattis summoned, in front of Congress, the preparation of a new strategy that will involve greater participation of the countries in the region, from India to Iran, from Pakistan to China.

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Afghanistan: Taliban militias attack a police base, 12 casualties - Like This Article