Taliban militants launched surprise attacks against multiple police checkpoints in southern Afghanistan and killed at least 25 officers, officials said Sunday. The victims included members of both the Afghan National Police and the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-funded government militia that provides security in rural areas. Reached by phone Sunday, Bakht Mohammad, an Afghan Local Police commander in Shahjoy, said fighting with the Taliban was continuing. The Afghan security forces “suffered big casualties and the fighting is still going on,” Haqbayan said. In a separate incident in Kabul, gunmen attacked a guest house occupied by foreign aid workers, killing a German woman and an Afghan security guard, authorities said.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 21, 2017 16:30 UTC