KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan special forces launched a new offensive against the Islamic State militant group in eastern Nangarhar province, killing 27 militants, officials said Tuesday. Meanwhile, Taliban attacks in northern Afghanistan killed 15 members of the country's security forces.
According to provincial council member Ajmal Omar, the special forces, backed by helicopter gunships, targeted the Islamic State in the Achin district of Nangarhar on Monday. The province has been an Islamic State stronghold and the site where the militant group's regional branch first emerged a few years ago.
The militants' media arm, the Aamaq news agency, claimed the Islamic State repelled a joint Afghan-U.S. operation in the area.
Omar, who could not confirm whether U.S. troops took part in the operation, said two local Islamic State leaders, Sediq Yar and Syed Omar, were among those killed. The remoteness of the area makes it impossible to independently investigate conflicting reports.
In the north, the Taliban launched two blistering attacks on police outposts in Sar-e-Pul province on Monday night, killing 15 policemen and wounding 21, the latest in near-daily assaults by the insurgents against Afghanistan's security forces.
Despite civilians being nearby, security forces fired artillery rounds to repel the militant advances.
The hourslong attacks mostly focused on overtaking oil wells and vehicles near the capital in Sar-e-Pul province, officials said, as the Taliban bid to demonstrate power and undermine government control during peace talks to end the 17-year-old war.
Zabihullah Amani, the spokesman for the governor of Sar-e-Pul, said the Taliban had simultaneously attacked the center of Sayyad district, security outposts along the highway linking Sar-e-Pul with Jowzjan, and a village with oil wells.
"It was a very strong attack," Amani said.
The Taliban's main goal, he said, was to take control of the oil wells in the village of Qashqari. They did not succeed, he added.
The militants used rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault, Amani told The Washington Post on Tuesday.
Fierce gunbattles raged for several hours in Sayyad district and outside Sar-e-Pul, the provincial capital. In the attack on the outskirts of the city, heavy artillery fire by Afghan forces trying to repel the Taliban sent residents fleeing for safety, said provincial council chief Mohammad Noor Rahmani.
"The areas are with the government, but they are under range of Taliban fire," Amani said. "We still have not received any assistance."
Three senior security officials -- an intelligence officer and two police commanders -- were killed in the attacks, said Rahmani.
Afghan forces fired Soviet-era D-30 howitzers to repel militants on the capital outskirts, Amani said. The Associated Press reported the barrage forced civilians to flee to safety, though officials said there were no reports of civilian casualties.
The Taliban suffered casualties in their assault, Amani said. But officials have not said how many militants were killed or wounded.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousof Ahmadi claimed the group's responsibility for both attacks in Sar-e-Pul province.
Separately, in the northern province of Balkh, the Taliban struck a security outpost in the Chemtal district, killing six police officers and wounding seven others, said Rahmatullah Khan, a local police commander. "The Taliban seized all weapons and equipment in the outpost," he said.
The assault joins a stream of near-daily Taliban strikes designed in part to exert pressure during peace negotiations between the militants, the United States and regional powers.
While it remains unclear if the recent meetings will result in negotiations that include Afghan officials, they do appear to have contributed to the Taliban's growing public outreach efforts in the region: The Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed on Tuesday that a delegation from the group had visited Tehran on Monday to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and possible paths to peace and security in the region.
Analysts have said President Donald Trump's sudden announcement to withdraw about half of the 14,000 U.S. troops from the country would strengthen the Taliban's negotiating position as Afghan forces struggle to maintain security throughout the country, suffering record-high casualties in 2018.
There are signs those attacks will continue through the winter, a time in which the Taliban have historically rested and regrouped with their families in Pakistan through bitter cold months, said Khalid Pashtun, a lawmaker in Kandahar.
"This year we have noticed they're staying inside Afghanistan," he said, adding that it was possible Afghan forces have been caught off guard after expecting assaults to become less frequent.
Monday's Sar-e-Pul attacks may have also been a bid to claim territory to further undercut Islamic State militants mustering in the north, he said. In August, more than 150 Islamic State fighters surrendered to the government after battling the Taliban in neighboring Jowzjan province.
The size and strength of the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which emerged in 2013, is estimated at anywhere between several hundred and several thousand fighters. The group consists mostly of disgruntled Taliban fighters and Uzbek militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, as well as Pakistani militants who were driven out of Pakistan's tribal region along the border with Afghanistan.
There are currently about 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, mostly carrying out training and assisting the Afghan forces who took over the defense of their country in 2014. There are also 7,100 soldiers from other NATO and partnering countries still stationed in Afghanistan.
Information for this article was contributed by Amir Shah, Maamoun Youssef and Kathy Gannon of The Associated Press; by Najim Rahim and Fahim Abed of The New York Times; and by Alex Horton and Sayed Salahuddin of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/02/2019