KABUL: Afghan forces battled for hours against Taliban insurgents who stormed a police headquarters in the northern city of Pul-e-Khumri, after a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car, killing at least 13 people, officials said on Sunday.

A Taliban militant detonated his Humvee vehicle at the entrance of the police office before a group of eight attackers armed with machine guns rushed in the building, two Afghan officials said.

“Thirteen policemen were killed and 35 others injured,” said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry in Kabul, adding that 20 civilians were also wounded.

“The complex attack on Baghlan police headquarters has ended with the death of all nine attackers, including the suicide bomber,” he said.

The Taliban, which is seeking to restore strict Islamic rule and expel foreign forces from Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack in a busy area of the city with many other residential and commercial buildings.

Taliban fighters frequently capture US-made armoured Humvee vehicles from Afghan forces to load with explosives and use as car bombs to breach military fortifications.

Abdul Aleem Ghafari, deputy provincial health director in Pul-e-Khumri, said women and children were among those killed by the blast.

Sunday’s raid was the latest in a series of high-profile attacks that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan this year and put heavy pressure on the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks on security installations, even as they hold sixth rounds of direct talks with US officials to end the war in Afghanistan.

This week, the group rejected appeals made last week by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to declare a ceasefire in the 17-year conflict.

Afghan-born US diplomat Khalilzad is leading the talks with the Taliban in Doha to pursue a deal that would bring the withdrawal of foreign forces in return for Taliban security guarantees.

“All sides agreeing to reduce violence is a necessary step toward achieving that outcome and the morally responsible choice to make. We stand ready,” Khalilzad wrote on Twitter on Saturday.

Khalilzad’s comments came a day after Ghani said he was prepared to call an “immediate” and “permanent” ceasefire.

The Taliban said they will not lay down their arms ahead of Ramazan and rejected to hold talks with the Afghan government which they consider an illegitimate puppet regime.

Direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban collapsed in 2015.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2019