At least 13 Afghan security officials killed in Taliban attack

The Taliban launched an attack early on Monday on a newly established joint Afghan army and police checkpoint in eastern Ghazni province, killing at least 13 soldiers and policemen, according to a provincial official.

Afghan reinforcements were subsequently dispatched to the site of the attack in Khogyani district but were repeatedly ambushed along the way.

The assault came as a resurgent Taliban hold nearly half of Afghanistan, with near-daily attacks on Afghan security forces.

The Taliban view the US-backed government in Kabul as a dysfunctional Wes tern puppet and have refused repeated offers to negotiate with it.

Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincial governor in Ghazni, said that seven soldiers and six policemen were killed. Four soldiers were also wounded in the early morning attack at the checkpoint.

According to the spokesman, six insurgents were killed and more than 10 others were wounded during the ensuing three-hour battle with Afghan forces.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to the media.

The joint checkpoint was set up just two days a go in a strategic area to cut off a supply route for the Taliban but was now completely burned down and destroyed, Noori said.

"Reinforcement were rushed to assist the forces under attack but they were ambushed by other Taliban fighters at least four times while on their way to the checkpoint," said Noori.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in volatile Ghazni, and in August overran parts of the provincial capital, also called Ghazni. 

At the time, hundreds of people fled the city amid intense fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban that killed about 120 members of the security forces and civilians.

According to Afghan authorities, nearly 200 insurgents, many of them foreign fighters, were also killed.

Ghazni is the only one out of 34 Afghan provinces where the country's October parliamentary elections could not take place for security reasons. Voting there has been postponed for a year.

In southern Kandahar province the vote was delayed for a week after an attack by an elite Afghan guard killed two top government officials, including a powerful provincial police chief.