Taliban Seize Control of Northeast Afghan District

Taliban insurgent group has seized control of one of the districts in a northeast Afghan province in a predawn offensive, local officials said on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ten police officers were killed as hundreds of Taliban militants stormed several checkpoints in central Yamgan district, Al Jazeera cited a local police commander as saying.

"The situation is tense and worrying if reinforcements are not sent in time," member of the Badakhshan Province council, Abdullah Naji Nazari, told the broadcaster without confirming the number of casualties.

Seven police officers had been killed and three taken hostage in the attack, another provincial parliamentary representative, Abdul Wali Niazi, was reported as telling local media.

The Afghan Ministry of Interior, meanwhile, reported the Afghan National Police killing 96 armed insurgents and wounding another 61 in joint raids across 11 provinces, including Badakhshan, over the past 24 hours.

Taliban, with an aim to establish sharia law in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has stepped up attacks in recent months as part of a spring offensive amid an ongoing war against the Afghan government.