BAGHLAN-E-MARKAZI, Afghanistan -- In a chaotic weekend of violence throughout Afghanistan, dozens of police officers, soldiers and civilians were killed by insurgents who, in four separate attacks, overran a military base, killed a police chief, destroyed a police post and bombed a memorial event.

In the capital, Kabul, a commemoration for a man some Afghans regard as a hero but others decry as a war criminal turned violent Sunday as suicide bombers attacked attendees, killing at least two people. Police arrested more than 100 attendees for shooting in the air.

But the deadliest single incident was the destruction by Taliban insurgents of an army base in the northern Baghlan province on Sunday, with at least 22 and as many as 40 security force members killed, local officials said.

The military installation was the second major base to fall to the insurgents in Baghlan province in the past month, and the third in northern Afghanistan during the same period.

Abdul Hai Nemati, the governor of Baghlan province, said the Afghan army base at Mangalha village, in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district just north of the provincial capital of Pul-i-Kumri, had been surrounded by insurgents.

A senior police official said the insurgents had captured the Mangalha base by Sunday and had killed 40 soldiers and national and local police officers at that installation and at smaller outposts in the area.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

A spokesman at the Defense Ministry in Kabul, Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed, claimed that local officials' description of the military facility as a base was inaccurate.

Jawed said it was a "check post" that included representatives of the Afghan army and other units. Jawed also denied that the Taliban had captured it, saying it had been abandoned by defenders.

Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, head of the Baghlan provincial council, said that even before the main base fell, the death toll Saturday was 22: 16 army soldiers, four police special forces officers and two local police officers.

Mangalha village was once a Taliban stronghold. The insurgents surrounded the military base last year, but the government reclaimed control of the area.

The insurgents destroyed another Afghan military base and a nearby police post in Baghlan province on Aug. 15, killing 39 soldiers and policemen, according to local officials. That base was also in Baghlan-e-Markazi district, in neighboring Alawuddin village.

Officials said the loss of the two bases put the entire district at risk and endangered travel on the country's main north-south highway between the capital and northern Afghanistan.

"After the first base collapsed, other military posts are collapsing one after another," said the provincial council chairman, Mohseni. "The Taliban seized a huge amount of weapons, ammunition and vehicles from these collapsed posts. This is a big threat for the security of Baghlan province. The forces on the ground were not supported; they did not receive any reinforcement."

The earlier defeat in Baghlan came a day after another northern base fell, at Chinese Camp, in Faryab province, where all 106 soldiers of an Afghan army company were either killed or captured by the insurgents.

Elsewhere, Taliban insurgents in central Afghanistan attacked the headquarters of Day Mirdad district in Maidan Wardak province on Sunday, killing 10 police officers, including a district chief, and setting off a gunbattle, according to Hakmat Durani, spokesman for the police chief of Maidan Wardak province. He added that dozens of insurgents were killed in retaliatory airstrikes by the air force and that reinforcements were being sent to the area.

In a separate attack late Saturday, militants targeted a checkpoint in the western Herat province, killing nine security force members and wounding six others, said Gelani Farhad, the provincial governor's spokesman. He blamed the attack on the Taliban, saying about 10 insurgents were killed and five wounded during the ensuing gunbattle.

Deaths of Afghan security forces have steadily risen in recent years, as the international coalition has mostly withdrawn and left most of the fighting to the Afghans. In the first 10 months of 2016, the number of Afghan police and soldiers who died totaled 6,785, an average of more than 20 a day, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction, a U.S. government agency.

Since then, the agency said, the U.S. military has classified casualty information as secret at the request of the Afghan government. Many local analysts say fatalities have likely increased.

In Kabul, hundreds of gunmen took to the streets Sunday, blocking traffic and firing their weapons into the air, defying a ban on such celebrations in honor of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a leader who was killed by al-Qaida in 2001. Health officials said 13 people were hospitalized, struck by falling bullets.

Young people brandishing knives and machetes joined the unruly mourning processions, and the city's police made more than 100 arrests for public disorder offenses, seizing dozens of weapons and confiscating 30 cars used in the processions, according to Hashmat Stanikzai, a police spokesman.

The raucous and often violent processions have been an annual feature in Kabul for many years. Massoud is revered as the leader of the Northern Alliance fighting the Taliban, but he is regarded by other Afghan groups as a war criminal involved in the mass murder of opponents.

Massoud's family and old comrades distanced themselves from the day's events.

The scenes on Sunday shocked many people.

"I think everyone has had enough," Saad Mohseni, director of the MOBY Group and a man known as Afghanistan's media mogul, said in a tweet.

"They can commemorate at a stadium or somewhere out of the city. Kabul, a city of 5 million, cannot get hijacked because of a few hundred people," Mohseni wrote.

At Massoud Square, near the U.S. Embassy, security officials shot and apparently killed a man they said was a would-be suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest. Later, another suicide bomber, this time on a motorcycle, attacked a Massoud procession, killing at least two people, according to Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh. He said another 10 people were hospitalized, some in critical condition.

Information for this article was contributed by Najim Rahim and Rod Nordland of The New York Times; by Sayed Salahuddin of The Washington Post; and by staff members of The Associated Press. </s> Wave of attacks by insurgents kills dozens of Afghan troops

BAGHLAN-E-MARKAZI, Afghanistan — In a chaotic day of violence across Afghanistan, scores of police officers, soldiers and civilians were killed by insurgents who, in four separate attacks, overran a major military base, killed a police chief, destroyed a police post and bombed a memorial event.

In the capital of Kabul, a commemoration for a man some Afghans regard as a hero turned violent as suicide bombers attacked celebrants, killing seven, and police arrested more than 100 mourners for shooting in the air.

The deadliest single incident was the destruction by Taliban insurgents of an army base in Baghlan province on Sunday, with at least 22 and as many as 40 security force members killed, local officials said.

The military installation was the second major base to fall to the insurgents in Baghlan province in the past month, and the third in northern Afghanistan during the same period.

Abdul Hai Nemati, the governor of Baghlan province, said the Afghan National Army base at Mangalha village, in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district, had been completely surrounded by insurgents.

Casualties for Afghan security forces have steadily risen in recent years, as the international coalition has mostly withdrawn and left most of the fighting to Afghans.

In Kabul, hundreds of gunmen took to the streets Sunday, blocking traffic and firing their weapons into the air, defying a ban on such celebrations in honor of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the northern leader who was killed by al Qaeda in 2001. Health officials said 13 people were hospitalized, struck by falling bullets.

Massoud is revered by his fellow Tajiks as the leader of the Northern Alliance fighting the Taliban, but he is regarded by other Afghan groups as a war criminal involved in mass murder of opponents.

In northern Baghlan province, a senior police official said insurgents had captured the Mangalha base by Sunday and had killed 40 soldiers and national and local police officers at that installation and at smaller outposts in the area. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman at the Ministry of Defense in Kabul, Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed, claimed that local officials’ description of the military facility as a base was inaccurate. Jawed said it was a “check post” that included representatives of the Afghan National Army and other units. Jawed also denied that the Taliban had captured it, saying it had been abandoned by defenders.

Mangalha village was formerly a Taliban stronghold and the insurgents had surrounded the military base last year, only to have the government reclaim control of the area.

Najim Rahim and Rod Nordland are New York Times writers. </s> BAGHLAN-E-MARKAZI, Afghanistan — In a chaotic day of violence throughout Afghanistan, scores of police officers, soldiers and civilians were killed by insurgents who, in four separate attacks, overran a major military base, killed a police chief, destroyed a police post and bombed a memorial event.

In the capital, Kabul, a commemoration for a man some Afghans regard as a hero turned violent as suicide bombers attacked celebrants, killing seven, and the police arrested more than 100 mourners for shooting in the air.

The deadliest single episode was the destruction by Taliban insurgents of an army base in Baghlan Province on Sunday, with at least 22 and as many as 40 security force members killed, local officials said.

The military installation was the second major base to fall to the insurgents in Baghlan Province in the past month, and the third in northern Afghanistan during the same period. </s> A district police chief was among dozens of security forces killed in Afghanistan in overnight attacks by the Taliban, officials said Sunday.

The insurgent raids occurred in the central eastern Maidan Wardak, western Herat and northern Baghlan provinces, the officials said.

A provincial government spokesman in Maidan Wardak told VOA Taliban fighters stormed the Day Mirdad district center late Saturday, killing its police chief, Said Younus Hussaini, and 10 other security personnel.

Abdul Rahman Mangal dismissed reports, however, that Day Mirdad was on the verge of collapse, saying reinforcements have arrived in the district and a counteroffensive was underway to retake the lost territory in Day Mirdad.

Separately, reports said a coordinated Taliban attack against army and police posts in a troubled district of Baghlan has killed at least 20 Afghan security forces.

Afghanistan’s largest private broadcaster, TOLOnews, said insurgents also overran all the outposts and surrounding villages in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district.

Afghan authorities have not commented on the fighting in Baghlan. The Taliban issued a statement, claiming it killed 60 government forces and seized a large quantity of weaponry placed there. The insurgent group often issues inflated battlefield gains.

Meanwhile, officials in Herat confirmed a late-night Taliban raid against a security checkpoint in the province killed nine Afghan forces and wounded six others. A provincial government spokesman said 10 assailants were also killed in the ensuing gunbattle.

U.S.-trained Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have struggled to contain the Taliban and suffered heavy losses in the process during fighting season. The insurgent group is said to be controlling or hotly contesting about 50 percent of Afghanistan's 407 districts.

Islamic State militants have also increased attacks, particularly against members if the Afghan Shiite community, adding to the challenges of the beleaguered government forces.

In Kabul, hundreds of armed men took to the streets Sunday as part of annual celebrations in honor of the slain Afghan politcal and military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. The crowd blocked traffic on already congested streets in the Afghan capital and shots into the air, wounding at least 13 civilians, residents and health officials confirmed.

Massoud was assassinated by al-Qaida suicide bombers disguised as journalists on September 9, 2001. The Afghan government has imposed a ban on carrying arms during the annual celebrations but Massoud's supporters rarely respect the restriction.

A Kabul police spokesman, Hashmatullah Stanikzai, said during Sunday's celebrations a suicide bomber on motorbike detonated his explosives near a rally in the city, killing at least one person and wounding several others. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban assault on two adjacent checkpoints in northern Afghanistan killed at least 30 soldiers and police, officials said Wednesday, as life gradually returned to normal in parts of the eastern city of Ghazni after a massive insurgent attack last week, with sporadic gunbattles still underway in some neighborhoods.

Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, the head of the provincial council in the northern Baghlan province, said the insurgents set fire to the checkpoints after the attack late Tuesday in the Baghlan-I Markazi district. Dilawar Aymaq, a parliamentarian from Baghlan, confirmed the attack, which targeted a military checkpoint and another manned by the so-called local police, militias recruited and paid by the Interior Ministry.

Abdul Hai Nemati, the governor of Baghlan, said at least nine security forces are still missing and four others were wounded in the attack. He said reinforcements have been dispatched to help recapture the checkpoints.

Meanwhile, Afghans emerged from their homes and some shops reopened in Ghazni, where the Taliban launched a coordinated offensive last Friday, overwhelming the city's defenses and capturing several neighborhoods. Afghan forces repelled the initial assault and in recent days have struggled to flush the insurgents out of residential areas where they are holed up.

The U.S. and NATO have launched airstrikes and sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces as they fight for the city, which is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital, Kabul, and has a population of some 270,000 people.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said Wednesday that "life is getting back to normal" after at least 35 civilians were killed in recent days. But he said wounded people are still arriving at the city's only hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the casualties.

Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in Ghazni, which has killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the southern Zabul province early Wednesday, killing four police, according to the provincial police chief, Mustafa Mayar, who said another three officers were wounded. He said seven attackers were killed and five were wounded during the battle, in which the Taliban used artillery and heavy weapons.

The Taliban have seized several districts across the country in recent years and carry out near-daily attacks targeting Afghan security forces. The assault on Ghazni was widely seen as a show of force ahead of possible peace talks with the United States, which has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 17 years.

Also on Wednesday, six children were killed when they tinkered with an unexploded rocket shell, causing it to blow up, said Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Laghman province. Zwak said that the victims were girls, aged 10-12, who were gathering firewood on Wednesday.

He blamed insurgents, saying the rockets they fire at Afghan security forces often harm civilians.

Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance left by decades of war. It is also plagued by roadside bombs planted by insurgents, which are usually intended for government officials or security forces, but often kill and maim civilians.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A Taliban assault on two adjacent checkpoints in northern Afghanistan killed at least 30 soldiers and police, officials said Wednesday, as life gradually returned to normal in parts of the eastern city of Ghazni after a massive insurgent attack last week, with sporadic gunbattles still underway in some neighborhoods.

Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, the head of the provincial council in the northern Baghlan province, said the insurgents set fire to the checkpoints after the attack late Tuesday in the Baghlan-I Markazi district. Dilawar Aymaq, a parliamentarian from Baghlan, confirmed the attack, which targeted a military checkpoint and another manned by the so-called local police, militias recruited and paid by the Interior Ministry.

Abdul Hai Nemati, the governor of Baghlan, said at least nine security forces are still missing and four others were wounded in the attack. He said reinforcements have been dispatched to help recapture the checkpoints.

Meanwhile, Afghans emerged from their homes and some shops reopened in Ghazni, where the Taliban launched a coordinated offensive last Friday, overwhelming the city's defenses and capturing several neighborhoods. Afghan forces repelled the initial assault and in recent days have struggled to flush the insurgents out of residential areas where they are holed up.

The U.S. and NATO have launched airstrikes and sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces as they fight for the city, which is just 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital, Kabul, and has a population of some 270,000 people.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said Wednesday that "life is getting back to normal" after at least 35 civilians were killed in recent days. But he said wounded people are still arriving at the city's only hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the casualties.

Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in Ghazni, which has killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the southern Zabul province early Wednesday, killing four police, according to the provincial police chief, Mustafa Mayar, who said another three officers were wounded. He said seven attackers were killed and five were wounded during the battle, in which the Taliban used artillery and heavy weapons.

The Taliban have seized several districts across the country in recent years and carry out near-daily attacks targeting Afghan security forces. The assault on Ghazni was widely seen as a show of force ahead of possible peace talks with the United States, which has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 17 years.

Also on Wednesday, six children were killed when they tinkered with an unexploded rocket shell, causing it to blow up, said Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Laghman province. Zwak said that the victims were girls, aged 10-12, who were gathering firewood on Wednesday.

He blamed insurgents, saying the rockets they fire at Afghan security forces often harm civilians.

Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance left by decades of war. It is also plagued by roadside bombs planted by insurgents, which are usually intended for government officials or security forces, but often kill and maim civilians. </s> Taliban militants have killed at least 26 Afghan soldiers and injured 30 more in an attack on an army base in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province.

The militants “attacked an army camp in the Karzali area of the Khakrez district of Kandahar last night,” General Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said on Wednesday.

Waziri said the soldiers “bravely resisted” and killed over 80 of the assailants.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, at least 50 Taliban militants were reportedly killed in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of northern Baghlan Province during an ongoing operation by Afghan troops on Tuesday night, Afghan media reported on Wednesday.

More than 20 villages were purged of Taliban militants during the operation, which was launched eight days ago in a bid to clear the area of militants.

Some 70 more Taliban members were also wounded in the operation.

“The Taliban are on the run from the district after suffering heavy casualties,” said Deputy Defense Minister General Shoaor Gul.

They had attacked the district eight days ago and gotten close to the center of the district.

According to authorities, the Afghan Air Force provided support for ground forces in the operation, and the militants suffered most of the casualties in the aerial operations.

Insecurity has gripped Afghanistan since 2001, when the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

In addition to the Taliban, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group — which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq — has managed to gain a foothold in Afghanistan. </s> The Taliban launched a series of attacks on security checkpoints in four Afghan provinces early on Thursday, killing 32 members of the security forces and pro-government militias, provincial officials said.

Both sides in Afghanistan's 17-year war have kept up attacks this winter, with the Taliban inflicting a heavy toll on government forces, and the U.S. military and their government allies killing Taliban field commanders with air strikes.

At the same time, tentative peace efforts have been under with U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad holding three rounds of talks with the Taliban, although the insurgents called off a fourth round this week.

The latest Taliban attacks came in the northern provinces of Kunduz, Baghlan, Takhar, and Badghis in the west.

Ahmad Fahim Qarluq, the chief of the Qala-e-Zal district in Kunduz, said a large number of Taliban attacked security checkpoints in the early hours, killing 10 soldiers and police and wounding 11.

In neighbouring Baghlan and Takhar provinces, the Taliban killed 16 members of pro-government militias in attacks on outposts, officials said.

They also said the Taliban suffered heavy casualties.

To the west, in Badghis province, Jamshid Shahabi, spokesman for the governor, said six members of the security forces were killed and 10 wounded in clashes.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attacks, and said in statement that the militants had killed dozens of members of the security forces and captured a large number of weapon and ammunition. </s> Meanwhile, a Taliban assault on two adjacent checkpoints in northern Afghanistan late on Tuesday night killed at least 30 soldiers and policemen, officials said.

The attack took place in northern Baghlan province, in the Baghlan-I Markazi district, said Mohammad Safdar Mohseni, the head of the provincial council. Dilawar Aymaq, a parliamentarian from Baghlan, said the attack targeted a military checkpoint and another manned by the so-called local police, militias recruited and paid by the Interior Ministry.

Abdul Hai Nemati, the governor of Baghlan, said at least nine security forces were still missing and four others were wounded in the attack. He said reinforcements have been dispatched to help recapture the checkpoints.

Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the assault.

Also Wednesday, life was gradually returning to normal in parts of the eastern city of Ghazni after a massive, days-long Taliban attack, though sporadic gunbattles was still underway in some neighbourhoods.

Afghans emerged from their homes and some shops reopened in Ghazni, where the Taliban launched a co-ordinated offensive last Friday, overwhelming the city's defences and capturing several neighbourhoods. Afghan forces repelled the initial assault and in recent days have struggled to flush the insurgents out of residential areas where they are holed up.

The United States and NATO have launched airstrikes and sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces as they fight for the city, just 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the Afghan capital with a population of some 270,000 people.

Arif Noori, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said Wednesday that "life is getting back to normal" after at least 35 civilians were killed in recent days. But he said wounded people were still arriving at the city's only hospital, which has been overwhelmed by the casualties.

Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in Ghazni, which has also killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban attacked a police checkpoint in the southern Zabul province early Wednesday, killing four policemen, according to the provincial police chief, Mustafa Mayar, who said another three officers were wounded. He said seven attackers were killed and five were wounded during the battle, in which the Taliban used artillery and heavy weapons.

The Taliban have seized several districts across the country in recent years and carry out near-daily attacks targeting Afghan security forces. The assault on Ghazni was widely seen as a show of force ahead of possible peace talks with the U.S., which has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 17 years.

Also on Wednesday, six children were killed when they tinkered with an unexploded rocket shell, causing it to blow up, said Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Laghman province. Zwak said that the victims were girls, aged 10-12, who were gathering firewood on Wednesday.

He blamed the Taliban, saying the rockets they fire at Afghan security forces often harm civilians.

Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance left by decades of war. It is also plagued by roadside bombs planted by insurgents, which are usually intended for government officials or security forces, but often kill and maim civilians.

By Rahim Faiez And Amir Shah, The Associated Press
The Taliban attacks two units of Afghan security forces in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan Province, killing at least 39 soldiers and police officers.