About 200 Taliban fighters attacked a district headquarters in Afghanistan, killing three soldiers and capturing four, a day after militants killed six troops in the same area, police said yesterday.
Sunday night's attack in Paktika province's Terwah district was the latest in a spate of violence that has swept Afghanistan in the past week, fueling concern about an increasingly bold and resurgent Taliban operating from the porous border region with Pakistan.
"They burnt down the building completely," provincial police chief Dawlat Khan said.
"They apparently killed three soldiers and took four others with them. The size of the Taliban force, I am told, was about 200 and they all fled to Pakistan."
Terwah is near Barmal, a district where officials said scores of suspected Taliban guerrillas killed at least six police troopers on Saturday before escaping into Pakistan. Officials estimate 16 guerrillas were killed in this attack.
Last week was one of the bloodiest since the Taliban was overthrown by a US-led military coalition in late 2001.
At least 65 people were killed last Tuesday and Wednesday in a series of incidents, including a bomb on a passenger bus, a factional clash, fighting between government and Taliban guerrillas and an ambush on a local aid group.
Khan said he believed the Paktika raids were organized in Pakistan and could not have been carried out without the support of Pakistani border forces.
"They regularly organize there and then come to carry out attacks here," he said. "Pakistan's border militia see these people moving back and forth, but do not stop them."
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