MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nearly 100 police officers went missing after overnight clashes in Warduj, Badakhshan province on the Pakistani border, and a number of bodies with gunshot marks was found later in the area, the military source added.
"Taliban insurgents have taken control of a number of police posts and also stole about 17 security force vehicles," the unidentified official told the Afghan news channel TOLOnews.
TOLOnews reported Sunday's attacks followed an encounter in the Badakhshan province's town of Jurm, where some 30 soldiers have been killed nearly a month ago. Two policemen in the south Afghan city of Lashkar Gah were injured in twin suicide attacks less than three weeks ago.
The withdrawal of an international contingent from Afghanistan on December 31, 2014 marks the first time Afghan security forces face Taliban's insurgencies without foreign help. Waves of attacks by the group seeking to impose sharia law in Afghanistan and Pakistan have intensified every spring since 2006 and are commonly referred to as a "spring offensive."
Despite an official end to US and NATO military operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban, a residual force of nearly 10,000 remains in Afghanistan.
