At least 13 soldiers were killed in an overnight Taliban attack in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, according to officials said on Wednesday.
A police spokesperson said that news a group of Taliban militants attacked security check posts in Dasht-e-Archi district on late on Tuesday, Efe news reported.
He said that security forces, most of them members of the Afghan National Army, suffered casualties.
But Safiullah Amiri, deputy head of Kunduz provincial council, said 13 members of the security forces were killed.
“Twelve of them (were) members of the army and one of them a policeman,” Amiri told Efe news.
Another provincial administration official said three members of the army were missing after the gunfight that lasted for several hours.
“Taliban also suffered casualties in this attack but their number is not yet clear,” he told Efe news.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement claimed responsibility and said that 35 soldiers were killed and four were captured during the attack.
Mujahid said four armoured vehicles of the security forces were destroyed and Taliban fighters seized dozens of weapons as well after the gunfight.
The attack came a day after the Taliban claimed on Monday that they shot down a US plane in Ghazni province.
Earlier in the month, at least eight soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack in Afganistan’s Balkh province.
at least seven soldiers were killed and six security personnel injured after Taliban insurgents attacked a joint military camp in the country’s northern Balkh province.
Taliban militants, who ruled the country before being ousted in late 2001, renewed armed insurgency, killing government troops as well as civilians.
Last month, two US service members were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
In October 2017, one US service member was killed and six US soldiers were injured after the coalition’s helicopter crashed in Logar.
There are still 13,000 US troops in Afghanistan, most of them involved in a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan security forces in their fight against the Taliban and the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan.
Peace talks between the United States and the Taliban stalled in early September after the US ended discussions following the death of an American soldier in a bombing in Kabul.
(With inputs from agency)