Taliban kills 19, including eight election workers, in south Afghanistan: officials

The employees of the Independent Election Commission were stationed at the government office in Maruf district to register voters when fighters of the hard line Islamist group launched an attack.

June 30, 2019 04:16 pm | Updated December 03, 2021 08:28 am IST - KABUL

Talking peace, fighting war: Members of the Taliban delegation arriving in Moscow for peace talks in May.

Talking peace, fighting war: Members of the Taliban delegation arriving in Moscow for peace talks in May.

Taliban suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in an attack on a government office on Saturday night, officials said, in the latest episode of violence in Afghanistan as peace talks continue to end the war.

Election workers were registering voters ahead of presidential elections in September at an office in the Maroof district of the southern Kandahar province when fighters of the hard-line Islamist group launched an attack using four Humvee vehicles, officials said.

4 suicide bombers

Eight election workers were killed, they said. Eleven Afghan security force members were also killed alongside the four suicide bombers, said Tadeen Khan, the police chief of Kandahar.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the group’s fighters also killed 57 members of thesecurity forces in the attack and captured 11 others, but Afghan officials disputed the account.

The Interior Ministry in a statement said 25 Taliban insurgents were killed in the clash.

Fighting between the Taliban and Afghan forces has intensified even as leaders of the Taliban and U.S. officials hold peace talks in Qatar.

In a separate attack, Taliban fighters killed eight Afghan soldiers and injured eight others at a military checkpoint in Balabulak district in the western province of Farah, a local official said.

Mahmood Naemi, the deputy chief of the Farah council, said the clashes ended after Afghan forces launched air strikes. “Many Taliban fighters were killed in the air strike,” said Mr. Naemi.

Villagers flee province

In the northern province of Takhar, over 600 villagers fled as Taliban fighters seized large areas of the province during heavy fighting in recent days, government officials said.

The pace of talks between the U.S. and Taliban in Doha has sped up as Afghanistan heads for presidential elections on September 28.

Qatar’s government, which is mediating the peace process between the United States and the Taliban, on Sunday said the two sides discussed the withdrawal of foreign troops, preventing militants from using Afghanistan to harm the U.S. or other countries and a comprehensive ceasefire.

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