KABUL, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants in Afghanistan on Saturday launched a multi-pronged attack against government interests across the country as part of its annual spring offensive, resulting in dozens of deaths.
The militants targeted security checkpoints around Kunduz city, the capital of Kunduz province early Saturday, Ahsanullah Fazli, head of the health department in the restive province, told Xinhua.
So far, four dead bodies and 39 injured persons including women and children have been taken to hospitals, the official added.
Inamudin Rahmani, a police spokesman in Kunduz province, asserted that over a dozen Taliban fighters including two foreigners had been killed and 10 others injured.
The spokesman refrained from revealing casualties on the side of security personnel in the fighting.
Similarly, the militants launched offensives in Baghlan-e-Markazi district, Baghlan province in the neighboring Kunduz province on the same day, killing eight security personnel and injuring nine others, district governor Khanzada Mazlomyar said.
A clash between government forces and the Taliban outfit in Baghlan's neighboring Samangan province has also left three local policemen dead and six others injured, Raz Mohammad Moahidi, deputy to provincial council, said.
Another clash in Spin Boldak district of the southern Kandahar province, according to police, has left nine militants and one policeman dead on Saturday.
The Taliban group announced its annual spring offensive on Friday and since then has launched series of attacks against government interests in the militancy-battered country, officials confirmed.
About 60 militants, according to security officials, have been killed in the southern provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, eastern Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, the northern Samangan and Badakhshan provinces since Friday.
Meanwhile, Afghans from all walks of life have termed the declaration of annual offensive by the Taliban group as "war mongering policy" and strongly condemned it.
The Presidential Palace said in a statement released here "announcing the so-called spring offensive speaks of the resolve of the Taliban group to continue the illegitimate war in Afghanistan" and the so-called Jihad or holy war of the Taliban in Afghanistan has no legitimacy.
The government of Afghanistan, besides defending the country and its sovereignty, once again urged the Taliban leadership to give up illegitimate fighting and join the peace talks to end the war in the country, the statement added.
