Army and police officials in the southern province of Zabul said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have succeeded to push back Taliban militants’ attacks in the province which began last month.

The officials said the Taliban wanted to take the control of many districts of the province, including Shahjoi, Shinkai and Shimalzai but their attacks were pushed back and the military operations by the Afghan forces are underway in different parts of the province. 

Zabul Police Chief Lieut. Col. Saeed Meraj Sadat said that dozens of Taliban militants were killed in the operations over the past few months. 

“Taliban wanted to overrun Zabul this year, but their attacks were repelled and they suffered heavy casualties,” he said. “They went towards northern districts [of Zabul] including Shimalzai and Shinkai, but again they failed.” 

Army officials in the province said that the operations will continue against militants in the province. 

“We have conducted different operations in different districts of Zabul in which we had huge success,” said Colonel Safiullah Nijrabi, an Army commander in Zabul. “Recently, we launched another operation in Shahjoi district which is near Ghazni province which was a coordination between the 203 Thunder Corps and 215 Maiwand Corps.” 

He assured the Zabul residents that they will provide a safe environment for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for September 28.

Taliban has not commented on this report. 

This comes as the ninth round of negotiations between the US and the Taliban is underway in Doha, Qatar, where the two sides are seeking an agreement which will facilitate “conditions-based” withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.