This weekend was the anniversary of the killing of anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Masoud. Several commemorations were held, and Taliban fighters carried out a number of attacks on sites across the country.
At least 57 Afghan security forces were killed in the course of several different attacks on Saturday and into Sunday. Mostly, these centered around the Taliban attacking military checkpoints in several different provinces.
In addition to the 29troops killed, 10 Taliban were also reported killed, according to provincial officials. In the northern Baghlan Province, there are reports of gunbattles ongoing near some checkpoints.
Ahmad Shah Masoud was a leader of anti-Taliban operations in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was killed by suicide bombers in September 2001, just days before the 9/11 attacks in the US. Officials with the US-backed government celebrate Masoud as a major opponent of the Taliban.