Taliban Threatens to Attack Polling Sites During Afghan Elections - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Taliban militant group has threatened to carry out attacks targeting polling places during the upcoming parliamentary and district council elections in Afghanistan, the Khamaa Press agency reported on Monday.

The group claimed in a statement that the upcoming elections were the US-led conspiracy and promised to target people ensuring the security of the electoral process, the outlet reported.

READ MORE: US Ready to Talk With Both Afghan Gov't, Taliban to Settle Peace — State Dept.

At the same time, the militants said they would take "extensive and intensive care of civilian Afghan lives and their properties."

Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable political, social and security situation due to simmering Taliban* insurgency. The violence is exacerbated by the activities of various terrorist groups, including the Daesh*.

The parliamentary election in Afghanistan is set for October 20 and it will be the first such election in the country since 2010. The election was supposed to take place in 2016, however, it had been postponed because of the unstable security situation in the country.

Earlier in the month, the country's security officials promised to take all precautions needed to conduct the elections in a safe and secure manner. According to the interior ministry's deputy spokesman, Nusrat Rahimi, as many as 54,000 servicemen will ensure security at about 21,000 polling sites throughout the country.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) and Taliban are terrorist groups banned in Russia