80 killed in 24 hours in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

More than 80 people were killed in Taliban militants' attacks on government targets in the past 24 hours in Afghanistan, according to media reports and officials Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The militants targeted security checkpoints in the Baharak district of the northern Takhar province late Tuesday night, triggering a gun battle which lasted for couple of hours. The clash left 28 security personnel including policemen and army soldiers dead and nine others wounded, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported.

Blaming the Taliban outfit for the increase in violence, the report said that the militants stormed a joint base of army and police in the Baharak district, which borders the provincial capital city of Taluqan.

Earlier, provincial government spokesman Mohammad Jawad Hajari told Xinhua that the Taliban offensive in Masjid-i-Safid area outside Taluqan killed 25 policemen including a senior officer.

The Taliban militants also left 16 bodies behind, according to the official.

In another development on Wednesday, a Taliban attack on highway police led to the death of two policemen and the injury of nine others, on a road connecting the provinces of Jawzjan and neighboring Balkh, spokesman for the Jawzjan provincial government Azar Marouf said.

Moreover, at least 50 Taliban militants were killed in the clashes in the Miwand and Shah Wali Kot districts of the southern Kandahar province, while eight more were killed in the Zabul province in the past 24 hours, according to local officials.

There has been no comment from the Taliban outfit.

Clashes have increased in Afghanistan while the intra-Afghan dialogue is underway in Doha, capital of Qatar since Sept. 12. The talks have so far made no tangible progress.

"Taliban militants would do their best to gain more ground and even trying to overrun at least a big city to secure upper hand and speak from a strong position on negotiating table," local analyst Khan Mohammad Daneshjo told Xinhua.