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19 killed in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

Security personnel inspect a bus after a suicide attack Saturday in Kabul. Six Afghan soldiers died, and 18 soldiers and civilians were injured. (Rahmat Gul, The Associated Press)

KABUL Three Taliban attacks killed at least 19 people in Afghanistan on Saturday, including a senior judicial official and personnel working to clear one of the most heavily mined regions of the world.

The attacks came amid a spike in violence weeks before the international military mission in Afghanistan comes to an end Dec. 31, 13 years after the 9/11 attacks sparked a U.S.-led invasion to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban's terrorist regime.

As the Taliban insurgency vows to maintain its campaign against government, military and foreign targets, the attacks have prompted tighter security in Kabul and concerns among Afghans that the situation can only worsen after foreign forces have transitioned to a support role from Jan. 1.

The U.S. and NATO will leave about 13,000 service members in the country, with sliding reductions over the coming two years.

With the end of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, the residual troops are meant to offer training and support to Afghan security forces that have been leading the anti-insurgency fight while suffering record casualties since the middle of last year.

President Ashraf Ghani made it clear during recent overseas trips that he thinks Afghanistan needs ongoing financial and military support as the insurgency intensifies and spreads.

"We are not yet able to do everything alone. Your continued support will, therefore, be key in ensuring that our collective gains of the 13 years will be enduring," Ghani told NATO foreign ministers in Brussels earlier this month.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Saturday attacks, as well as one late Friday in which two American soldiers were killed, according to an international military official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the information wasn't authorized for release. The soldiers died when a suicide bomber targeted their convoy near the Bagram air base.

Their deaths brought to 65 the total number of international troops to die in Afghanistan this year, 50 of them Americans.

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19 killed in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

December 14th, 2014

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Dozens killed by multiple Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

Category: Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- A surge of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan's capital and Helmand province has resulted in dozens of deaths, including two U.S. troops and a top figure in the nation's supreme court.

The latest incident came Saturday when 12 mine-clearing workers were killed at a base in the Nad Ali district in Helmand province. A military commander at the camp told Al Jazeera that six workers were also wounded in the Taliban assault.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani denounced the attack as the work of the country's enemies.

Around the same time a suicide bomber detonated near a bus in Kabul, causing it to burst into flames, killing seven Afghan soldiers.

Earlier the same day, the head of the secretariat of Afghanistan's Supreme Court, Atiqullah Rawoofi, was shot to death by two gunmen on a motorbike as he walked to his vehicle from his home in northwestern Kabul. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Friday, two NATO troops were killed when their convoy was attacked near Bagram air base, north of Kabul. NATO's International Security Assistance Force released a statement saying two "service members died as a result of an enemy forces attack in eastern Afghanistan on Dec. 12, 2014," but declined to identify nationalities. The BBC reports the two were U.S. service members.

The weekend attacks follow an incident on Thursday when six Afghan soldiers riding a bus were killed after a pedestrian suicide bomber blew up next the vehicle.

As foreign forces prepare to withdraw from the country in the next three weeks, attacks by Taliban forces have increased.

Of the 65 international troops killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2014, 50 were from the United States.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Dozens killed by multiple Taliban attacks in Afghanistan

December 14th, 2014

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