Taliban Captures District in Central Afghanistan

Officials say Afghan security forces have withdrawn from a remote district of central Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to capture the area.

Government officials said police and troops left the Nawa district in Ghazni province Friday, after days of fighting with militants.

Taliban spokesman Zabihollah Mojahed also confirmed that security forces have left the district, with militants taking over and setting fire to the local administration building.

Taliban militants have captured several remote districts in the past, but have not been able to hold on to them for long.

In other violence, NATO says two of its soldiers were killed Friday, after militants attacked their patrol with a roadside bomb and small arms fire in eastern Afghanistan. NATO did not release the nationalities of the troops.

Also Friday, provincial police chief Hussein Andiwal says at least four Afghan police officers were killed and five others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in southern Helmand province.

Elsewhere in the south, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat says four Taliban militants were killed during a clash with police in Uruzgan province.

Violence has escalated in Afghanistan this year, as Taliban militants increasingly use suicide and roadside bomb attacks to target Afghan and foreign troops.
VOA