Kabul: Taliban militants stormed a court complex in the Afghan city of Ghazni today, clashing with police in which 10 people, including all five of the militants, were killed, police said.
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“The Taliban have brutally killed 16 civilians and taken about 20 with them”, Hashemi said.
The violence underscores Afghanistan’s fragile security situation as the militants intensify assaults against government forces after launching their spring offensive in April.
The buses were carrying at least 180 passengers, including women and children, from Kunduz city to capital Kabul, the official said.
In another incident on Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed a top police administrator and wounded four policemen in the relatively peaceful northern province of Balkh, officials there said.
Afghan security force personnel stand alert at the entrance to a provincial court in Ghazni on June 1, 2016, after a group of Taliban gunmen targeted the building.
Jawed Salangi, spokesman for Ghazni’s governor, said the toll could have risen if the militants had managed to detonate an explosives-packed vehicle which was parked near the courthouse.
“The nine casualties included four civilians, four attackers and one policeman”, Xinhua quoted an official as saying. The attackers then blew themselves up.
Meantime, Zabihullah Majahid who claims to speak for the Taliban in contact with media claimed the responsibility for the attack, insisting heavy casualties inflicted to the court employees.
The group did not mention, however, the fate of dozens of people kidnapped on Tuesday in the northern province of Kunduz.
The Taliban did not set any demands for the release of the people it was holding.
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The insurgents also launched attacks on several districts in southern Helmand province and on the outskirt of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
