Flared-up violence claims 13 lives in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan

At least two senior Afghan security officials and 11 civilians were killed and several others injured in the past 24 hours amid flared-up violence across the country, officials said on Monday.

The veteran police chief of WazaKhwa district in the restive Paktika province bordering Pakistan’s tribal districts was killed by the Taliban in an ambush on Sunday evening.

In a social media post, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahed claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the police commander, Abdul Raheed Abaseen, was planning an attack on them in the Musawaal area.

Afghanistan has been witnessing a surge in such attacks following US President Joe Biden's announcement last week to withdraw all American troops from the country by September.

Armed assaults and landmine explosions have increased in the southern provinces in particular. Officials in Afghanistan are pointing fingers at the Taliban, who often deny such charges.

In another incident on Sunday evening, a landmine allegedly planted by the Taliban exploded and killed the Gulraan district intelligence chief in the western Herat province, which borders Iran. Two other officials were also killed in the blast, according to the governor's office.

In another landmine explosion in Maiwand district in Kandahar killed five civilians and wounded three others, the provincial administration confirmed in a statement on Monday.

It further said a separate roadside bomb blast also injured the police chief of the province's Zeray district.

Also on Monday, at least 16 civilians, including children, were wounded in Kunar province when mortars hit a religious gathering.

There were no claims of responsibility for these incidents, which occurred just hours after a similar incident killed six members of a family in the central Maidan Wardag province on Sunday evening.

The local Tolo News reported that 44 civilians and 81 security force personnel have been killed in separate incidents and Taliban attacks across Afghanistan since the holy month of Ramadan started on April 13.

Figures compiled by Anadolu Agency suggest at least 47,000 Afghan civilians lost their lives to the raging war since the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.