Around 698 Taliban insurgents have been killed in the last month in Kandahar province, claimed a provincial security officer on Friday. This comes as the insurgent group mounted several attacks in the province to runover districts.

Farid Mashal, the security officer at the Kandahar Police Headquarters, said the Taliban offensive was focused on Arghandab, Zherai, Panjwai, and Dand. The group suffered heavy casualties in counter-offensives undertaken by the security forces. 

US and NATO forces also conducted airstrikes in Kandahar and Helmand provinces to repel the Taliban’s attacks. 

Just days before, the Taliban asked the US forces to stop their airstrikes in Kandahar, terming them a violation of the US-Taliban agreement signed on 29 February last year. Significantly, the Taliban said the US air forces were assisting the Afghan security forces in their fresh operations. 

In a separate incident on Thursday night, at least four members, including a district police chief, have been killed in a Taliban attack in western Herat province in Afghanistan, TOLOnews reported. Dozens of Taliban insurgents were involved in the attack. 

Reports say the Taliban mounted coordinated simultaneous attacks on Ghorian district on Thursday night. The district police headquarters and the district governor building were targeted in the attacks, said Mohammad Sardar Bahaduri, a member of the provincial council. The attack continued for several hours, he added. 

The provincial security officers are yet to comment on the incident. 

Earlier on Wednesday, six soldiers were also killed in an attack by the Taliban in Kunduz. The insurgents also took control of an army base there. On the same day, a pilot from the Afghan Air Force was also killed in a targeted assassination inside the Afghan Ministry of Interior; making the attack the first insider attack of the year.