Taliban militants killed at least 26 members of a pro-government militia in north Afghanistan on Saturday, officials said, as the militants and US negotiators prepared for a new round of peace talks in Qatar.
The talks will be led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US peace envoy for Afghanistan, who has held six rounds of talks with the Taliban in Qatar’s capital of Doha since October.
But despite the efforts to find peace, fighting between the Taliban and government forces has not subsided.
In the latest bloodshed, Taliban stormed security posts manned by the pro-government militia in the early hours of Saturday in the Nahrin district of the northern province of Baghlan.
A provincial police spokesman said 26 of the militiamen were killed. A senior defence ministry official in Kabul said the attack was a clear indication that the Taliban wanted to negotiate from a position of strength.
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