Taliban kill dozens of police in Farah province

HEART: Taliban fighters attacked Afghan bases in the western province of Farah, killing more than 30 police, officials said on Friday, as the insurgents stepped up their offensive in a region with vital opium smuggling routes into neighbouring Iran.

Farid Bakhtawar, head of the Farah provincial council, said fighters had stormed a police base overnight in Balabuluk, a district that has been under heavy pressure for months, killing at least 23 and wounding three. In a separate attack in Farah city, Taliban fighters killed 11 police and seized a large quantity of weapons and equipment, he said. The latest violence underlines the extent of the pressure faced by the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, already heavily criticized for a spate of suicide bombings in the capital, Kabul.

Last week, Taliban fighters, who challenge government control in almost half the country, seized a district in the northern province of Baghlan and there has been heavy fighting in areas from Faryab in the northwest to Ghazni, south of Kabul. Farah, a remote and sparsely populated province between Iran to the west and the Taliban heartland of Helmand province in the south, has been a key battleground for the insurgents for months, with heavy fighting in Balabuluk district.