Multiple reportedly “coordinated” attacks by Taliban fighters have hit locations across Afghanistan overnight, overrunning a police convoy in Farah Province, and attacking another military convoy carrying goods nearby, while launching other strikes across the nation’s north and west.
The attacks left at least 35 people dead and 73 others wounded, with the attacks overwhelmingly targeting Afghan security forces or contractors working for NATO occupation forces.
The Farah attack was by far the biggest, occurring on Highway One, one of the few paved highways in the entire country. The highway connects Western Afghanistan to Kabul and Kandahar, and the convoy was inspecting a highway patrol unit at the time of the attack. 15 police were killed.
Today’s attacks reflect the Taliban’s “summer offensive” goals of focusing on Afghan troops, and underscores their ability to continue to hit them in high profile attacks while suffering relatively limited casualties of their own, though Afghan officials did claim an unspecified number of Taliban were killed in today’s fighting.