Taliban militants kill 25 civilians, govt. forces in Afghanistan’s Ghazni

Taliban militants have killed at least 25 civilians and government forces in Afghanistan’s central east province of Ghazni, a week after the militant group seized control of an important security post outside the provincial capital in a deadly attack on Afghan soldiers.

The attack claimed the lives of at least 15 civilians in Jaghori district on Sunday plus 10 commandos dispatched by Kabul to the flashpoint area, which is inhabited mainly by Hazaras.

The deadly incident occurred as a days-long battle with threatening ethnic overtones is still ongoing with the central government sending special forces units to back up local militia forces fighting against Taliban, a movement dominated by Sunni ethnic Pashtuns.

According to Police spokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat, at least six members of the security forces were also wounded in the attack.

On Monday, Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said 13 soldiers were killed, and 13 more were wounded, in the attack on Ghazni city, which has a strategic significance as it sits on the main road connecting the capital Kabul to the country’s south.

In August, the city briefly fell to the Taliban in what was said to be one of the militant group’s largest offensives in years. At least 150 Afghan soldiers and 95 civilians were killed during a five-day siege on Ghazni back then.

The Sunday development took place as American special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad prepared for a new round of meetings aimed at bringing the militant group to the negotiating table in an attempt to try to find a political settlement to the decades-long war in the war-ravaged country.

SS