About 100 Afghan Troops Killed in Ghazni Battle

Date: 13 August 2018 - 22:02

News ID: ۵۶۲۹۴

KABUL (Dispatches) -- The battle with the Taliban in the eastern city of Ghazni has killed about 100 police officers and soldiers as well as at least 20 civilians, Afghanistan's defense minister said here Monday.
Gen. Tareq Shah Bahrami gave the toll at a news conference, the fourth day of fighting in Ghazni, the provincial capital of the province with the same name. He said the casualty figures are not yet definite and the numbers might change.
He did not offer a breakdown of the casualties, but Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said nearly 70 police officers were among those killed.
The Taliban launched a massive attack on Ghazni on Friday, overwhelming the city's defenses and capturing parts of it.
The defense minister said about 1,000 additional troops have been sent to Ghazni and helped prevent the city from falling into Taliban hands. He also said 194 insurgents, including 12 leaders, were killed. They include Pakistani, Chechen and Arab foreign fighters.
The Taliban attack on Ghazni, a strategic centre on the main highway linking the capital Kabul with southern Afghanistan, is a blow to President Ashraf Ghani weeks before parliamentary elections and dampens hopes of a start to peace talks.
The insurgents seized control of the districts of Khawaja Omari, north of Ghazni city and Ajrestan, in the west.
Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians have fled from the city. One of them, 60-year-old Ghulam Mustafa, made it to neighboring Maidan Wardak province with 14 of his family members.
"The city became so dangerous," he told The Associated Press. "Ghazni has become a ghost city."
Mustafa's wife Razia said they had no food, water or electricity for the past four days. "There were so many dead bodies under the bridges, at the side of roads and under the destroyed houses," she said.
Afghan officials said U.S. special forces units were on the ground helping to coordinate airstrikes and ground operations. The U.S. military said American aircraft had launched two dozen airstrikes since Friday.
People escaping the city have described widespread destruction and bloodshed. Afghanistan's largest television station, Tolo News, broadcast shaky phone footage showing fires apparently raging across the blacked-out centre.
As troops were battling Taliban fighters in Ghazni, a suicide bomber in Kabul detonated explosives near the office of the independent election commission, where dozens of protesters had gathered, killing at least one police officer and wounding another.
The protesters had turned out in support of a parliamentary candidate disqualified by electoral officials over suspected links with illegal armed groups, as barred lawmakers encourage protests to disrupt the panel's activities.
Diplomats in Kabul said the government had admitted being taken by surprise by the attack and after days with minimal public comment from the presidential palace, Ghani announced on Twitter that reinforcements would be sent urgently.
The fighting fueled an increasingly fevered political atmosphere ahead of October’s parliamentary elections, as concern grows over potential security threats from the Taliban and other armed groups.