A spurt of violence last week in provinces far from the Taliban’s main southern strongholds suggests the insurgency is spreading, even as the top U.S. commander says the coalition has reversed the militants’ momentum in key areas of the ethnic Pashtun south where the Islamic movement was born.
Earlier this month, 10 members of a medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton — were gunned down in Badakhshan, a northern province that had seen little insurgent activity.
In the west, Afghan and Coalition forces struck another blow to the Taliban’s top leadership network in Logar, capturing the group’s military commander for the province during a recent raid.
A combined security force captured Zia Ul Haq, who was described as “a senior Taliban commander operating in Logar province and responsible for the facilitation of foreign fighters and suicide bombers into Kabul City,” according to an International Security Assistance Force press release.
Meanwhile, on Saturday insurgents disguised as U.S. soldiers attacked two U.S. bases in eastern Afghanistan. They managed to breach the perimeter of one of them before being turned back. At least 28 insurgents were killed in the attack. No coalition troops lost their lives.
In another incident, Gunmen shot dead five campaign workers for a candidate in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election next month. The deaths of the five, from a group of 10 kidnapped in western Herat province, were confirmed only hours after Haji Abdul Manan, a candidate from the same area, was shot dead as he walked to a mosque to pray.
