Attack on Afghan checkpoint kills 10 security forces

Insurgents attacked a security checkpoint in western Afghanistan early today, killing at least 10 security forces, officials said.

No one immediately claimed the attack, but a series of assaults by the Taliban in Farah province over the past week have killed at least 38 security forces, while another five were captured and several were wounded.

Abdul Samad Salehi, a member of the Farah provincial council, said four of those killed in today's attack were from the intelligence service and six were police.

"We have asked the central government for additional troops before Farah city falls into the hands of the Taliban," Salehi said. He said security forces are battling the Taliban on three different fronts, and the insurgents have launched several attacks on checkpoints around the provincial capital.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a suicide truck bomb struck a checkpoint in the southern Helmand province, killing at least two border police, according to Gen. Abdul Ghafar Safi, the police chief of the province, which borders Pakistan. He said another three police were wounded in the blast. The Taliban claimed the attack.

The Taliban have seized a number of districts across the country in recent years, expanding their footprint after U.S. and NATO forces formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014.