At least 21 people including 11 policemen were killed in a recent attack by Taliban. They were killed at a checkpoint in northern Baghlan province, provincial officials said Tuesday. The attack took place just as Taliban representatives were to hold meetings in Moscow with prominent Afghan figures, including former President Hamid Karzai, opposition leaders and tribal elders but not Kabul government officials.
The local police force in the Baghlani Markazi district were targeted by Taliban, which triggered a firefight that lasted nearly for two hours.
Five policemen were also wounded and the Taliban seized all the weapons and ammunition from the security before reinforcements arrived, he said.
"They arrived there late, fought back and managed to get the checkpoint under control," he added.
Earlier on Monday, the Taliban targeted a local pro-government militia in a village in northern Samangan province, killing 10 people there, including a woman, said Sediq Azizi, spokesman for the provincial governor. The attack injured four others.
The Taliban targeted local villagers, including women and children, Azizi said. As the area is very remote, the villagers have their own militia to provide security for their area and defend their homes from the insurgents.
The two-day meeting in the Russian capital between the Taliban and Afghan figures starts Tuesday and it is seen as another step in a process aimed at resolving Afghanistan's 17-year war. The war has accelerated since the appointment last September of US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
But the meeting has sidelined Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government, which has criticized the gathering.
Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive, said Monday that the Afghan government should be at the center of any peace talks. He added that Taliban were the biggest obstacle to peace, but if the Moscow meeting creates "an opening for real peace talks, it would still be a step forward." The Taliban have been staging near-daily attacks, inflicting heavy casualties on the embattled Afghan army and security forces.
