Taliban attacks 50 Afghan districts after peace deal

The Taliban has staged attacks in at least 50 districts across 16 Afghan provinces following the signing of the peace deal with the US in February and most of these took place in the last two months after negotiations began in Qatar on September 12, sources said.

The sources said on Thursday that the provinces comprised Uruzgan, Kandahar, Helmand, Farah, Nimroz, Herat, Badghis, Faryab, Jawzjan, Sar-e-Pul, Balkh, Samangan, Baghlan, Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan, reports TOLO News.

Clashes between the Taliban and security forces were still ongoing in Uruzgan's Gizab and Khas districts, considered as two of the most sensitive.

Data from the Ministries of Defence and Interior Affairs revealed that over the last six months, the Taliban has carried "dozens of attacks across the country, including 50 suicide attacks in which over 1,200 civilians have been killed".

"In cooperation with the foreign terrorists, they (Taliban) staged major offensives, but the brave members of the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces retaliated to these attacks with full force," TOLO Nes quoted Rohullah Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry, as saying.

"Some 1,210 civilians were killed and 2,500 more were wounded in Taliban attacks," said Tariq Arian, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

The Taliban were yet to comment on the report.

Violence has intensified in various parts of the country despite ongoing efforts in Doha by negotiating teams of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban.