Taliban hit Afghan outpost, kill 15 soldiers

15 soldiers die in latest of upsurge of attacks in Kandahar

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban besieged an Afghan army outpost early on Friday and during hours of fighting killed at least 15 soldiers and wounded five, officials said, adding to a string of recent attacks in the strategically vital province of Kandahar.

While Kandahar had remained relatively safe over the past few years, even as provinces around it felt the pressure of a Taliban resurgence, the insurgents seem to be focusing again on the province. Kandahar served as the Taliban founder's seat of power when the movement controlled Afghanistan in the late 1990s.

Officials are reporting an uptick in Taliban attacks in the province since the launch of their new offensive last month, with as many as eight of the province's districts facing sporadic assaults.

The attack on Friday began about 1:30 a.m. in the district of Shah Wali Kot. Gen. Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said 15 soldiers were killed and five were wounded at an outpost near Zangitan.

Gen. Abdul Raziq, the police chief of Kandahar, said that the fighting lasted for hours and that the Taliban, who had attacked in large numbers, also suffered heavy casualties.

"The situation is under control now," Raziq said.

It was the second deadly attack this week on an army post in Shah Wali Kot. On Tuesday, an attack in the village of Achakzai left at least 10 Afghan soldiers dead and nine wounded, according to Maj. Ahmad Sadiq, a spokesman for the 205th Army Corps in Kandahar.

Hajji Agha-Lalai Dastgiri, the deputy governor for Kandahar, said that the Taliban were again turning their attention to Kandahar after gaining ground in neighboring provinces in recent years.

"There is insecurity in the neighboring provinces -- in Oruzgan, only the capital of the province is safe, in Zabul only the capital is safe, and in Helmand the Taliban are almost entirely controlling the northern part of the province," Dastgiri said. "The Taliban are going to manage sophisticated attacks on those districts of Kandahar that border those insecure provinces, where they have the upper hand and can easily arrange attacks."

A trend of heavy casualties among the Afghan security forces seems to be continuing this year, after record losses last year: more than 6,000 killed and more than 12,000 wounded in a largely defensive effort. The situation has alarmed the U.S.-led NATO coalition, which has about 13,000 troops here to support and train the Afghan forces.

Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, 8,400 of which are American, has requested an additional few thousand troops to help the mission.

Information for this article was contributed by Fahim Abed of The New York Times.

A Section on 05/27/2017

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