A string of Taliban attacks in western and northern Afghanistan has killed 21 members of the country's security forces, according to officials. Jamshed Shahabi, spokesman for the governor in western Badghis province, said the insurgents overran outposts there, killing six policemen. According to Council member Shamsul Haq Baeakzai in northern Baghlan province, seven members of the local police force were killed there, also on Wednesday.
In northern Takhar province, council member Ruhollah Raufi said eight policemen were gunned down. The attacks left another 23 members of the security forces wounded, said an AP report.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for all the attacks. The Taliban or Taleban, who refer to themselves as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, are a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan currently waging war within that country. Since 2016, the Taliban's leader is Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada.
From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban held power over roughly three quarters of Afghanistan, and enforced there a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War and largely consisted of students (talib) from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan who had been educated in traditional Islamic schools, and fought during the Soviet–Afghan War.
