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Deadly floods sweeping Afghanistan have put the celebrated minaret of Jam -- one of the country's most revered cultural, architectural and historical treasures -- at risk of collapse, an official warned Saturday. Torrential rains that started Thursday have lashed six of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, heaping yet more misery onto impoverished residents, many of whom had already been displaced by flooding over the winter. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs said the new floods have killed at least 24 people and injured 11 more. The rainfall has also threatened the minaret of Jam, a more than 800-year-old, 65-metre (213-foot) Islamic religious tower and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in central Ghor province. ‘Water has surrounded the minaret. We have hired about 300 locals to help divert the flow of water,’ Abdul Hai Khatebi, a spokesman for the governor of Ghor, told AFP. Images on social media showed fast-moving torrents of brown water churning unhindered against the base of the brick minaret, located in a narrow valley that also is home to important archaeological ruins. ‘A delegation is assigned to come to Ghor to take emergency measures to help the people and save the minaret,’ Khatebi said. UNESCO did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The minaret is located in a remote area that is largely under Taliban control. It is the world's second-tallest minaret and is situated on the frontier of Ghor and Herat provinces, at the heart of the Ghorid empire which dominated Afghanistan and parts of India in the 12th-13th centuries. In 2002, the minaret and its archaeological remains became the first site in Afghanistan to be added to UNESCO's World Heritage List. Built on an octagonal base, the minaret has a double staircase on the inside and is elaborately decorated. Its date of construction is given as around 1190. Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage has faced decades of catastrophic neglect, mismanagement and looting, as well as deliberate destruction at the hands of the Taliban. Following a long drought, heavy snowfall across large swathes of Afghanistan have fuelled massive flooding this year, with more than 100 people killed in recent months, officials said.

A large blast rocked central Kabul Wednesday, officials confirmed, sending a plume of black smoke over the city in the latest explosion to hit the war-torn city and as Afghanistan observes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. "I can confirm an explosion in the Shar-e-Naw area of Kabul. We are checking the details," Ferdaws Framurz, a spokesman for the city's police force, told AFP. Interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said the explosion happened near the offices of CARE International, an NGO with operations in Afghanistan.  "We don't know the nature of the explosion yet but small arms firing has also been heard in the area," Rahimi added.  The blast comes as the US and Taliban representatives continue negotiations in Qatar aimed at bringing an end to the nearly 18-year-old conflict.  The talks follow a massive peace summit in Kabul last week where President Ashraf Ghani offered the Taliban a ceasefire to begin on the first day of Ramadan, but the insurgents refused. The Taliban have rebuffed repeated calls to halt fighting over the last year as they seek to gain leverage at the negotiating table by pressing the fight on the battlefield. Last year the Taliban announced a three-day ceasefire at the end of Ramadan after Ghani declared a unilateral truce for eight days earlier in the month. It was first formal nationwide ceasefire since the US-led invasion of 2001 and saw unprecedented scenes of reconciliation and jubilation across the country.

 A Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at a police headquarters in northern Afghanistan followed by clashes between gunmen and security forces, officials and the Taliban said on Sunday. The death toll was not known but at least 40 people had been injured, said Mohibullah Habib, provincial health director in the city of Pul-e-Khumri. A member of the Baghlan provincial council said clashes were ongoing and that it had sought immediate deployment from neighboring provinces. "Clashes have not stopped," said Assadullah Shahbaz. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. "Several other Taliban fighters are presently clashing with the Afghan forces," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Kabul, said several Taliban fighters had managed to penetrate the headquarters. The Taliban have stepped up attacks on security installations, even as they hold direct talks with the US officials to end the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban hold sway over more territory than at any point since their ouster at the hands of US-led troops following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Earlier this week the group rejected appeals made by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad to declare a ceasefire. The Afghan-born US diplomat Khalilzad who is leading the sixth round of talks with the Taliban in Doha to pursue a deal that would see the withdrawal of foreign forces in return for Taliban security guarantees on Saturday said that America stands ready for "all sides" to lay down arms in the 17-year conflict. "All sides agreeing to reduce violence is a necessary step toward achieving that outcome and the morally responsible choice to make. We stand ready," Khalilzad tweeted. Khalilzad's comments came a day after Ghani said he was prepared to call an "immediate" and "permanent" ceasefire. About 45,000 Afghan security forces have been killed since Ghani took office in September 2014. The Taliban said they will not lay down their arms ahead of the holy month of Ramadan. "A ceasefire will only get discussed once a deal about foreign force withdrawal gets finalised," Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban's political spokesman based in Doha told Reuters. The Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan consists of 17,000 troops, about half of them from the United States. A smaller number of US troops operate in Afghanistan under a counter-terrorism mission.

Afghan civilians are for the first time being killed in greater numbers by US and pro-government forces than by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, a UN report released Wednesday revealed. The bloody milestone comes as the US steps up its air campaign in Afghanistan while pushing for a peace deal with the Taliban, who now control or influence more parts of the country than at any time since they were ousted in 2001. During the first three months of 2019, international and pro-government forces were responsible for the deaths of 305 civilians, whereas insurgent groups killed 227 people, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a quarterly report. The majority of the deaths resulted from US air strikes or from search operations on the ground, primarily conducted by US-backed Afghan forces, some of which UNAMA said ‘appear to act with impunity’. ‘UNAMA urges both the Afghan national security forces and international military forces to conduct investigations into allegations of civilian casualties, to publish the results of their findings, and to provide compensation to victims as appropriate,’ the report states. Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UNAMA started compiling civilian casualty data in 2009 amid deteriorating security conditions in Afghanistan. It is the first tally since records began that shows pro-government forces have killed more civilians than insurgents have. - 'Shocking number' - In 2017, the US military started quickening its operational tempo after President Donald Trump loosened restrictions and made it easier for American forces to bomb Taliban positions. While other nations may contribute logistical or technical support, it is US aircraft that conduct most strikes. Afghanistan's fledgeling air force is also flying more sorties. The US has sent huge B-52 bombers on runs over the country and benefited from an increase in aerial hardware as operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria tapered off. UNAMA's report did, however, also find that civilian casualties dropped 23 percent compared with the first three months of 2018. In all, UNAMA documented 1,773 casualties in the last quarter: 581 deaths and 1,192 injured -- the lowest first-quarter toll since 2013. The drop was driven by a decrease in the use of suicide bomb attacks, but UNAMA did not know if this trend came as a result of a harsh winter or if the Taliban were trying to kill fewer civilians during peace talks. In contrast, the first three months of 2018 saw a spike in horrific attacks that skewed numbers higher for that part of the year compared to 2019. For instance, more than 100 people were killed in Kabul in January 2018 when an explosives-packed ambulance blew up. UNAMA chief Tadamichi Yamamoto, who also serves as the UN secretary general's special representative for Afghanistan, said a ‘shocking number’ of civilians are still being killed or maimed. ‘All parties must do more to safeguard civilians,’ Yamamoto said in a statement. ‘Anti-government elements need to stop deliberately targeting civilians and using IEDs (handmade bombs), which cause indiscriminate harm; pro-government forces are called upon to take immediate measures to mitigate the rising death toll and suffering caused by air strikes and search operations,’ he added. Last year was the deadliest yet for Afghan civilians, with 3,804 killed, according to UNAMA.

Kobra Samim, who rides for Afghanistan's national cycling team, wrote on Facebook that women's participation in sport is her ‘red line’ as the US tries to forge a peace deal with the Taliban. Former politician Farkhunda Zahra Naderi tweeted that the protection of female leadership roles should be non-negotiable. And activist Samira Hamidi is demanding that women be included in the peace talks. Across Afghanistan, women have taken to social media to join a campaign dubbed #MyRedLine that aims to pressure the government, the Taliban and the United States into ensuring women's hard-won advancements are not tossed aside in a rush for a peace accord. ‘If the Taliban come back, we won't have the right to education, sports, and we will even be banned from coming out of houses,’ Samim, 23, told AFP as she adjusted the saddle on her mountain bike before setting off along a run-down Kabul street. ‘We want peace, but also we want to continue our sports and cycling.’ Farahnaz Forotan, a journalist and activist who started the #MyRedLine campaign with support from UN Women Afghanistan, said her own red line was ‘my pen and my freedom of expression’. ‘If peace doesn't bring social justice to all victims of war in every corner of the country, then it won't be a stable peace,’ Forotan told AFP. She said the #MyRedLine hashtag had been shared or retweeted thousands of times since the social media campaign was launched last month, with even President Ashraf Ghani tweeting that women's rights were the government's ‘red line’ in the peace process. The campaign is also being shared on Facebook, in English, Pashto and Dari. - 'More vulnerable than anyone' - Before being toppled by the US invasion of 2001, the Taliban governed Afghanistan for nearly five years with a strict interpretation of sharia law. Women were confined to their homes, forced to wear burqas and forbidden from going to school. Some were publicly stoned to death on flimsy allegations of adultery. ‘Women were more vulnerable than anyone during the Taliban regime,’ Forotan said. The United States is holding direct talks with Taliban leaders -- all men --- in a bid to forge a peace deal. Two Afghan women were invited to informal talks in Moscow in February between the Taliban and Afghan representatives, but their presence was very peripheral. A second, similar summit between Afghan delegates and the insurgents that was to take place in Doha this weekend and had been set to include more women has been postponed indefinitely. International observers have blasted the talks, led on the US side by peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, for their lack of female inclusion. Other social media hashtags such as #afghanwomenwillnotgoback have also gained traction, and Khalilzad appears to have taken note. On a trip to Afghanistan this month, the Afghan-born American envoy met with locals from all walks of life and with women's groups. The Taliban, however, appear unmoved. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid recently tweeted to deny reports that women were being included in the Taliban negotiating team and ‘neither do we believe it is necessary’. - 'Tough odds' - Heather Barr, the acting co-director of the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said the online campaign was encouraging. ‘They're up against tough odds at the moment, but their efforts are a sign that Afghan society is changing in fundamental ways, regardless of the outcome of these talks,’ Barr told AFP. In the United States, powerful women are lending their voices to the Afghan campaign. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who sits on the influential Senate Armed Services Committee that oversees the US military, said such a move is key. ‘Women's interests, as well as the interests of a broad segment of Afghan society need to be included as part of any negotiation,’ Shaheen told a group of journalists on a visit to Kabul this week. ‘It is vital for women to be included in talks with the Taliban.’ American actor and United Nations special envoy Angelina Jolie brought some celebrity power to the campaign last week, penning an opinion piece in TIME magazine calling for women to be included in ‘significant’ numbers. ‘Afghan women must be able to speak for themselves,’ Jolie wrote.

* Attack comes after months of relative calm in Afghan capital * Explosion appeared to be caused by suicide bomber - officials * At least three attackers killed - Interior Ministry spokesman * Taliban denies responsibility for the attack  At least seven people were killed in an attack on the Afghan communications ministry in central Kabul on Saturday, breaking months of relative calm in the capital and underlining the continued security threats despite efforts to open peace talks with the Taliban. The attack began shortly before midday when a suicide bomb was detonated at the entrance to the multi-storey building housing the ministry in a busy commercial area of the city, followed up by gunfire which could be heard over a mile away. Among the dead were four civilians and three police officers, while another eight civilians were wounded, a government official said. "We saw a gunman trying to break open an office door and as we were running out, he was trying to shoot us and he started shouting 'I will kill everyone here'," said Syeda Rashid, an office administrator in the ministry who escaped with several of her colleagues. She said at least six women had been wounded. Television images showed people fleeing after gunfire and explosions began near the 18-storey government tower. The area around the building was sealed off by police as at least three attackers battled security forces for several hours before the attack was finally suppressed in the late afternoon, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. The interior ministry said in a statement that more than 2,800 employees of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Information and Culture were evacuated during the clearance operation. Several young children and staff at a childcare centre for ministry employees were also evacuated. "We were having lunch when we heard the explosion," said Rabia, who worked at the childcare centre. "We grabbed the children together into the safe room and just waited till the security forces arrived," she said. The blast, which security officials said appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber, was also close to the heavily fortified Serena Hotel, one of the very few Kabul hotels still used by foreign visitors. The operation marked a return to the kind of complex attacks in an urban centre that have killed hundreds of people in Kabul and other Afghan cities over recent years. There was no claim of responsibility but the Taliban issued a statement denying any involvement. Many such attacks have been claimed by the radical Islamic State group. Prior to Saturday's attack, Kabul had been relatively calm as U.S. officials have held a series of meetings with representatives from the Taliban to try to agree the basis for a peace settlement and an end to more than 17 years of war. While heavy fighting has carried on across Afghanistan and Taliban militants have announced their now customary spring offensive, it had been months since the last major attack on civilian targets in the capital. The attack, just days after a planned meeting between Taliban officials and Afghan politicians and civil society representatives in Qatar was cancelled, underlined the hurdles facing efforts to reach a peace settlement. Officials have said they hope to hold a meeting soon but no date has been set. 

Two girls' schools have been destroyed in Afghanistan's western province of Farah, officials said on Tuesday. A female high school was blown up late Monday night on the outskirts of the provincial capital of Farah after unknown individuals had beaten up the schoolmaster, provincial councilor Shah Mahmood Naeemi said. School authorities had already received threats to close the school beforehand, according to Naeemi. The school was located on the outskirts of Farah city, about 20 kilometres from the centre, provincial council member Dadullah Qaneh said. The night before, another female school on the outskirts of the provincial capital was destroyed by unknown gunmen. Local officials believed the Taliban were behind both incidents. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, however, denied destroying the schools in Farah, saying the schools were destroyed due to conflicts over ‘internal appointments by the Education Ministry in the province.’  In late March, the militants had issued a statement on the eve of the beginning of the new educational year in Afghanistan encouraging families to send their school-aged children to regular schools as well as religious educational centres for learning basis issues. Women and girls were not allowed to attend schools under the Taliban regime for five years in Afghanistan in the 1990s. With ongoing peace talks between US and Taliban envoys, Afghan women have increasingly voiced concerns over losing hard-gained freedoms including the right to education and work in a post-peace deal situation.

Taliban fighters have killed 12 security forces in the last 48 hours in clashes in Afghanistan's western province of Badghis, the defence ministry said Monday. In the latest assault on Afghan forces -- who have faced devastating losses in recent years -- Taliban fighters last week smashed through government lines near the city of Bala Murghab, seizing several checkpoints. "It is with great sadness we announce that during these operations, eight Afghan National Army and four police who fought with bravery and courage accepted martyrdom," the defence ministry said in a statement. Another 10 soldiers and 24 police were wounded in the operation that killed "99 Taliban terrorists," it added. Clearance operations continue in the district, officials said, and security forces helped Red Cross workers evacuate the bodies of Taliban fighters that had been left on battlefields, officials said. The defence ministry last week said Afghan forces had made a "tactical retreat" from a number of checkpoints in the district to "avoid civilian casualties". Abdul Aziz Beg, the head of the Badghis provincial council, had described the situation as "critical" and called for reinforcements. Over the weekend Afghan and US-led coalition aircraft conducted multiple air strikes in support of ground forces. The Taliban said they had conducted a coordinated attack on a series of government checkpoints, killing 12 security forces.  The militants launched their assault ahead of a widely expected spring offensive. They typically declare a new fighting season as winter snows melt, and have in the past sought to gain control of district centres and target government facilities.

Twin explosions on Saturday in the eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad killed three people and injured 20 others, local officials said. One child and two women were killed, said Mohammad Shoieb Sahak, deputy head of Nangarhar Regional Hospital. Eight security forces were among the casualties, said Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government. "In today's incident, my sister and her daughters have been victims," said Sami Ul Haq, a resident of Nangarhar, visiting his family at the hospital. One of his nieces was killed and the other wounded, along with her mother, in the attack, he said. "It is such a misery." It was not clear what caused the explosions. No group took immediate responsibility. Islamic State emerged in Nangarhar in 2015 on the porous border with Pakistan to become one of Afghanistan's most dangerous militant groups for its bombing and complex attacks. Fighting between militant groups, and between the Taliban and Afghan forces has intensified in recent weeks amid recurring peace talks.

At least 19 security forces were killed in a series of Taliban attacks in the provinces Badghis and Sar-e Pul, officials said on Monday. Taliban attacked army checkpoints in Bala Murghab district of the western province of Badghis. At least 14 people were killed and five injured, provincial councillors Abdul Aziz Beig and Mohammad Nasir Nazari said. Taliban militants control large parts of the district and have besieged the district centre for a month, with little effort from the government to recapture it, Beig said. Government forces have lost their morale against the militants, he added. In northern Sar-e Pul province, Taliban fighters overran a military base in Suzmah Qala district, killing five soldiers, provincial council chief Mohammad Noor Rahmani said. Another five were injured, and the Taliban took at least six soldiers hostage, according to the official. Large parts of the province have been controlled by the Taliban for years, Rahmani said. Earlier Vice President Abdul Rasheed Dostum warned that Taliban attacks would intensify this year. The militants continue to stage major attacks on security forces despite being engaged in talks with the United States to find a political solution to the almost two-decades-long war that has ravaged the Central Asian nation. The group's military gains have won them considerable leverage in political talks, the peace advocacy organization International Crisis Group says.

Afghan Vice President General Abdul Rasheed Dostum escaped three ambushes by Taliban militants on his way to his home village late on Saturday, officials said. The militants targeted Dostum's convoy with rockets and other heavy weapons in three separate areas along the Balkh-Jawzjan highway in the northern Jawzjan province, killing one of his special bodyguards and wounding another two, his aides said on Sunday. Dostum had earlier confirmed reports of Taliban ambush plans but had nevertheless refused to go by air, according to his close aides Aziz Ahmad Begi and Bashir Ahmad Tayanj. The vice president already survived an IS-claimed suicide bombing in 2018 in the capital Kabul, where 23 people were killed and 107 another wounded. Before the Saturday incident, Dostum had requested government permission for an operation to drive back the Taliban in the northern provinces, during his first visit to the country's northern parts in more than two years. Dostum said that if the government gives him six months, he would be able to secure at least 16 northern provinces. The visit comes as Taliban militants have intensified attacks in northern provinces despite ongoing talks with US envoys.

Afghanistan's vice president, Abdul Rashid Dostum, escaped unhurt from an attack that killed one of his bodyguards on Saturday, dodging death for the second time since returning from exile last year. Attackers ambushed Dostum's convoy on the way from Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in Balkh province, to Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan, said Bashir Ahmad Tayenj, spokesman for Dostum's Junbish Party. Two other bodyguards were wounded. Dostum was aware of a planned attack but decided to travel anyway, the spokesman added. No group took immediate responsibility for the apparent assassination attempt, which comes eight months after Dostum avoided injury in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport. The attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, took place as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey over allegations of torturing and abusing a political rival. Dostum had left Afghanistan after heavy pressure from Western donors including the United States. Less than a year since his return, the general remains a significant, if polarizing, political figure. His Junbish Party is supported mainly by his fellow ethnic Uzbeks. Dostum has joined the election team of Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, one of several contenders in a presidential election scheduled for Sept. 28. 

Nine Afghan policemen were killed when Taliban fighters stormed their checkpoints and launched a follow-up ambush in the eastern Afghanistan city of Ghazni, officials said Saturday. The assault began early Friday when the Taliban attacked two adjacent checkpoints, Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Seerat told AFP. The Taliban then ambushed a group of police rushing to the scene, killing the head of the local police, Seerat added. In all, nine officers were killed and six were wounded, he said. The toll was confirmed by Arif Noori, spokesman for the Ghazni governor. In August, Taliban fighters briefly held the city of Ghazni before they were pushed out by US air strikes and Afghan forces. Friday's attack highlights the ongoing fragility of Afghanistan's security and the risks faced by local security forces as they man vulnerable checkpoints. President Ashraf Ghani in January said 45,000 security forces have been killed since he took office in September 2014. On its Twitter account, the Taliban claimed to have killed 12 ‘soldiers,’ though the group frequently exaggerates numbers. Meanwhile in Zabul in southern Afghanistan late Friday, Gul Islam Seyal, spokesman for the local governor, told AFP that four police were killed and two wounded after a ‘Taliban infiltrator’ opened fire at a checkpoint. The attacks come as the United States seeks to broker a peace accord with the Taliban and the Kabul government, more than 17 years since the US-led invasion that ousted the militant fighters.

Heavy rains caused flash floods in western Afghanistan that killed at least 17 people, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families, a government official said on Saturday. Two days of flooding that started on Thursday killed 12 people in Jawzjan and two in Badghis, provinces that border Turkmenistan, said Hasibullah Shir Khani, a spokesman for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority. Two others were killed in Herat and another in Sar-e Pul province, he said. More than 500 houses were destroyed. The floods worsen an already desperate situation. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced in western Afghanistan from last year's severe drought. Floods in early March caused further destruction and put this year's wheat harvest at risk. Children waded through muddy, knee-deep floodwaters that flowed through tent camps for displaced people after the rain stopped. Officials in Herat, which borders Iran, put the death toll higher than the national government. Dr. Abdul Hakim Tamana, head of public health for the province, said eight people were killed and nine injured. Floods have destroyed hundreds of homes, some historic sites, thousands of acres of farmland, bridges and highways, said Jilani Farhad, a spokesman for Herat province. Aid organization World Vision said in a statement it appeared tens of thousands of Afghans were affected. Some Badghis residents were calling it the worst storm in 20 years, it said. Iran has also been flooded by torrential rains, overwhelming emergency services in some areas.

At least 13 civilians were killed, mostly children, in an air strike by "international forces" in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz late last week, the United Nations said Monday. The strike happened between late Friday and early Saturday in support of ground operations conducted by pro-government forces fighting Taliban militants in the area. "Initial fact-finding indicates that 10 of those killed were children, part of the same extended family whom were displaced by fighting elsewhere in the country," the UN mission in Afghanistan said in a statement. The US is the only member of the international coalition in Afghanistan that provides air support in the conflict. A NATO spokesperson told AFP the coalition was investigating the claims. "Those who were killed were internally displaced families who had fled the war in Dasht-e-Archi district and had recently moved to the city," added Khosh Mohammad Nasratyar, member of Kunduz provincial council, saying three children were also wounded in the attack. The deaths come as ordinary Afghans continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, with more civilians killed in the Afghan war in 2018 than during any other year on record, according to a UN report. The uptick in violence in 2018 coincides with a significant increase in the number of deaths caused by the "deliberate targeting of civilians", according to the report, mostly stemming from suicide attacks by insurgents allied with the Taliban or Islamic State (IS). An increase in air strikes by US and Afghan forces also led to more civilian deaths in 2018, with more than 500 killed by "aerial operations for the first time on record". Fighting continues to flare across Afghanistan even as the US and Taliban press forward in peace talks aimed at ending nearly 18 years of fighting. The ongoing peace talks with the Taliban follow years of escalating violence in Afghanistan. According to the UN, at least 32,000 civilians have been killed and another 60,000 wounded in the last decade. Kunduz has been the scene of repeated air strikes gone awry over the course of the conflict, including an Afghan strike last April on an outdoor religious gathering in Dashte Archi that killed or wounded 107 people, mostly children, according to the UN. And in 2015, a US airstrike struck a Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) hospital amid heavy fighting in the area, killing 42 people, including 24 patients and 14 members of the NGO. 

Air strikes in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz killed about a dozen civilians on Saturday, local officials said, as battle intensified there and in southern Helmand province. The air strikes killed 13 civilians, said Safiullah Amiri, a member of Kunduz provincial council. The casualties included children, said fellow council member Amruddin, who pegged the civilian death toll at 12. The bodies were brought into Kunduz city in the back of a truck as part of protests by dozens of civilians. The civilian deaths occurred as Afghan and Taliban forces claimed to inflict heavy losses on each other in that province and in Helmand, two Taliban strongholds. A spokeswoman for the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan did not respond immediately to questions on Sunday. Resolute Support, comprising troops from 39 countries, trains, advises and assists Afghan security forces. The New York Times reported earlier that the air strikes that killed civilians followed a firefight between US and Afghan soldiers that had been provoked by a Taliban working inside Afghan forces. Reuters has not confirmed the paper's report. Four Afghan soldiers died in the fight, a senior Afghan military source said. A record number of Afghan civilians were killed last year as aerial attacks and suicide bombings increased, the United Nations said in a February report. Kunduz is also where two US soldiers were killed in combat on Friday. The US Department of Defense identified the soldiers as Specialist Joseph Collette, 29, and Sgt. Will Lindsay, 33. Fighting has accelerated during a period of recurring peace talks. The latest negotiating round concluded this month with US and Taliban officials citing progress toward ending the 17-year war. Afghan forces, with NATO air support, killed 58 Taliban, including several commanders, in Kunduz, the defence ministry said on Saturday via Twitter. The Taliban said that it had killed 19 members of Afghan forces and five from foreign forces. Fighting was also fierce in Helmand, including more civilian deaths. The Taliban on Saturday claimed an attack at a stadium celebration of Farmers Day in Helmand, which killed four people and wounded 31, including minor injuries to the province's governor. A day earlier, Taliban attacked two Afghan outposts in Sangin, killing 48 Afghan security personnel, said Hashim Alokozay, a Helmand member of parliament. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the two outposts were over-run, killing 52 Afghan troops and wounding 11 more. Omar Zwak, spokesman for Helmand's governor, said the Taliban also suffered heavy casualties.

Two explosions went off at a celebration in a stadium in the Afghan city of Lashkar Gah on Saturday, killing four people and wounding 31, government officials said. The blasts came during a Farmers Day celebration in the southern city that was attended by nearly 1,000 people. The governor of Helmand province, Mohammad Yasin Khan, was knocked over by the blasts, but suffered only superficial injuries, a spokesman said. The blasts appeared to have been caused by planted explosives. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack is one of several to occur during Afghanistan's multi-day celebrations to mark its traditional new year, beginning with explosions in the capital of Kabul on Thursday. Those attacks killed six people and wounded 23 and were claimed by Islamic State. The traditional new year is widely celebrated in Afghanistan but some hardline Islamists oppose the festivities, saying they are un-Islamic. Helmand, source of much of Afghanistan's opium, is one of several Afghan provinces in which insurgents have the greatest control and influence. Lashkar Gah is the provincial capital. Saturday's attack came exactly one year after a car bomb killed at least 14 people who had gathered to watch a wrestling match in Lashkar Gah. Fighting has been relentless in Afghanistan amid recurring peace talks between U.S. and Taliban negotiators. The latest negotiating round wrapped up this month with both sides saying there was progress toward ending the 17-year war. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction estimated in January that the government controlled or influenced just over half the country, covering nearly two-thirds of the population. 

* At least 50 border police surrender to Taliban-officials * Heavy casualties in fight for control of western Afghanistan * Taliban says 90 border police had surrendered  At least 50 members of the Afghan security forces have surrendered to the Taliban in a fight for control of Afghanistan's western province of Badghis that has created heavy casualties, officials said. Fighting in Afghanistan has intensified even as Taliban and US officials finished the latest round of peace talks on Tuesday, with both sides citing progress. Afghanistan usually sees a marked increase in violence in spring. Some 100 Afghan personnel who are part of the interior ministry's border police attempted to flee their posts into neighbouring Turkmenistan on Saturday, but they were prevented from entering that country, Badghis provincial council chairman Abdul Aziz Bik said on Sunday. About 50 Afghan border police surrendered, while the remaining 50 continued fighting in the district of Bala Murghab, he said. Bala Murghab is the province's most populous district. "These soldiers have been fighting against the Taliban for years and if they give up, they will be killed by Taliban," Bik said. The district was at risk of falling to the Taliban unless Afghan forces receive air and ground reinforcements, Badghis provincial council member Abdullah Afzali said on Saturday. Provincial councils are elected bodies that sometimes have closer connections to local residents than government officials have. The Taliban said 90 border police had surrendered to the militant group. It posted photos on Twitter of a line-up of dozens of men who the Taliban said were captured border police, and it added that it had killed many others. Jamshid Shahabi, a spokesman for Badghis' governor, said the Taliban had inflated its estimate of captured forces. It was not clear how many total Afghan and Taliban forces have been killed or wounded in the battle for the district. But the International Committee of the Red Cross tweeted that attacks in Bala Murghab had generated heavy casualties. The Red Cross said it had facilitated the handover of the bodies of 20 soldiers to the Afghan National Army Corps. In a tweet, the Afghan ministry of defence said its forces had killed 12 insurgents in Bala Murghab, as part of operations across 10 provinces during the previous 24 hours. A spokesman for the ministry could not be reached for comment. The Bala Murghab district has been a focal point of battle in recent months. The Taliban killed 20 Afghan soldiers and captured 20 less than a week ago. The Taliban controls or contests nearly half of Afghanistan, the most since US-led forces ousted it from power in 2001, according to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. The militant group conducts frequent attacks on Afghan security posts. The Taliban, ousted in 2001, say they are fighting to expel foreign troops, topple the Western-backed Afghan government and restore its version of Islamic law. Some 17,000 foreign troops are based in Afghanistan as part of a US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces. 

At least 27 people were killed in a series of Taliban attacks and explosions across the Afghan provinces of Faryab, Helmand and Kandahar, officials said Sunday. Taliban attacks on facilities of Afghan security forces in the Qaisar district of Faryab province, in the country's north, left 22 dead, provincial councillors Mohammad Nader Saeedi and Abdul Baqi Hashimi said. Another 14 people were injured, some critically, in clashes that started around 10:00 pm [17:30 GMT] and lasted for at least four hours, officials said. The Taliban also held four soldiers captive, the officials added. Three police checkpoints and a small military base were overrun by the militants, officials said. Meanwhile, in southern Kandahar, four police officers were killed after a roadside bomb went off in the province's Arghandab district, provincial governor spokesman Aziz Ahmad Azizi said. At the same time, a spy agency officer was killed and three of his colleagues were injured when a magnetic bomb attached to their vehicle exploded in Lashkargah, the capital of Helmand province in the south, provincial governor spokesman Omar Zwak said. The Taliban has increased attacks on Afghan security forces across the country, leaving behind scores of dead. The attacks took place as the insurgent group was in talks with a US delegation to find a political solution to the war. The United States has met with Taliban representatives six times since July last year in hopes of bringing its longest war in history to an end.

* At least seven wounded in gunbattle * Part of series of stand-offs over power in province A gunbattle erupted on Thursday between Afghan forces and supporters of a powerful politician in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif who rejected the appointment of a new provincial police chief by President Ashraf Ghani, officials said. At least five civilians and two security force personnel were wounded in the clash, the latest in a series of stand-offs between Ghani and Atta Mohammad Noor, who built up unrivalled power as governor of Balkh province for more than a decade. Noor is a leading figure in Jamiat-e Islami, a party that represents Afghanistan's Tajik minority. A former commander in the anti-Soviet Mujahiddin and considered one of the richest men in Afghanistan, he has faced repeated accusations of corruption, which he denies. He has continued to defy Ghani's attempts to retain control over his northern stronghold since stepping aside last year in a deal that allowed him to choose the new provincial police chief. Several officials in Balkh appointed by Ghani have complained at being blocked from taking up their posts by the refusal of local authorities to recognise their appointments. Noor has accused Ghani of trying to remove a potential rival and divide Jamiat by appointing his supporters to powerful posts to manipulate the presidential election in July. The stand-off underlines how far the president's authority has been challenged. Last month, a governor of the northern province of Samangan defied an attempt by Ghani to remove him. In a statement online, Noor called on residents to keep shops and markets closed. He said Ghani must withdraw the appointment of Abdul Raqib Mobarez as the province's new police chief. He also rejected the appointment of Abdul Latif Sahak's as head of the agency running the trade post of Hairatan, the border crossing into Uzbekistan that controls a significant slice of Afghanistan's foreign trade. Noor called him a ‘thief and a smuggler’. Sahak dismissed his accusations as ‘baseless’ and said he had been appointed after a competitive process by government ministries. Although no longer in office, he continues to wield enormous influence in the province and he called on supporters to resist Kabul's influence in local affairs. ‘The presidential palace has always been plotting conspiracies with its arbitrary policies. I ask all residents, men and women, of Balkh to be fully ready for defending their dignity,’ said Noor. Balkh, which sits on vital trade routes into central Asia, is also one of Afghanistan’s most stable and prosperous provinces, with a much smaller Taliban and Islamic State presence than in other northern regions. A senior official at the presidential palace said Ghani's decision to appoint a new police chief in Balkh was ‘free from bias’.