5 security forces killed in ambush in northwestern Afghanistan: Official

Afghan children walk past security forces in the Chaparhar district of Nangarhar Province on May 21, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Unknown gunmen have attacked a security convoy in northwestern Afghanistan, claiming the lives of at least five members of the local police, an Afghan official says.

Karim Yuresh, spokesman for the provincial police chief in Faryab, said the assailants ambushed the military convoy on Monday and killed a group commander along with four of his bodyguards.

The incident took place when the commander, identified as Sadat, and his men were on their way to a funeral in Kohistanat district, according to Yuresh.

The spokesman also said that an unspecified number of the attackers had been killed or wounded in the battle.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in the northwestern province, but both the Taliban and Daesh-affiliated militants are active there and have lately stepped up attacks on Afghan security forces, government officials and pro-government figures.

In a separate development on Monday, gunmen fatally shot a deputy chief of a provincial clerical council in the eastern Logar Province. Mawlavi Abdul Ghafor was killed near the provincial capital, Puli Alam, while on his way to a mosque for morning prayers.

A day earlier, Taliban militants killed at least 20 Afghan policemen and injured more than a dozen others during coordinated attacks on security checkpoints in the country’s volatile southern province of Zabul.

In late April, the militant group announced the start of its so-called spring offensive, a heightened campaign of bombings, ambush attacks, and other raids across Afghanistan, which begins as weather conditions improve.

Taliban increases its attacks across Afghanistan every spring, targeting government officials and US-led foreign forces in the country. Many ordinary people also often fall victim to the attacks.

Over 1,000 members of Afghan security forces as well as over 700 civilians have so far been killed this year, according to Afghan authorities and figures cited by the US-based Congressional watchdog Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).