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Taliban fighters ambushed security forces traveling through northern Afghanistan, sparking a daylong battle that killed 22 soldiers and police, officials said Monday.

The clash occurred in Sari Pol, at most times a relatively placid province, underscoring the growing threat from Taliban insurgents in northern Afghanistan.

Abdul Jabar Haqbeen, the provincial governor, said the security forces were on their way to the provincial capital when they were ambushed by Taliban forces in the Laghman valley Sunday morning. A battle lasted about 12 hours, with additional Afghan forces coming to the area to repel the assault, which also saw 23 Taliban slain, Haqbeen said.

Afghan forces also called on the U.S.-led military coalition to bomb Taliban positions but the aircraft arrived too late, Haqbeen said.

Also Monday, a disagreement emerged between residents of Paktia province and coalition forces over a weekend airstrike that Afghans said killed seven civilians.

Residents took the bodies to the governors office in Paktia, in eastern Afghanistan, on Monday in a show of protest, according to local media reports. The International Security Assistance Force, as the coalition is known, acknowledged the airstrike but said those killed were insurgents.

Abdul Wali Sahi, deputy governor of Paktia, told reporters that the victims were collecting firewood at the time of the strike.

The dispute comes two weeks after President Ashraf Ghanis administration signed agreements allowing U.S. and NATO forces to remain in Afghanistan into next year. The pact had been delayed for months due in part to former Afghan President Hamid Karzais charges that coalition forces had not done enough to curb civilian casualties.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, several attacks -- including in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif killed at least 14 people and wounded 45 others, according to media reports.

In Mazar-i-Sharif, capital of Balkh province and long seen as a haven of stability, two gunmen dressed in police uniforms raided the police headquarters, killing two officers and injuring nine others, authorities told Afghan media.

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Taliban ambush kills 22 security forces in northern Afghanistan

By Holly Kearl October 13 at 3:52 PM

Seventeen-year-old Zainab Zawol Shahidy was driving her Toyota 4Runner home from school in Kabul recently when she noticed two men in a vehicle following her. One of them pointed a gun at me and threatened me to drive along in their direction, but I refused and kept driving faster to reach home as soon as I could, she said.

She was forced to pull over when they blocked her. One of the men threw a slip of paper at her with his phone number and said if she didnt call him, he would kidnap her. She made it home and called security. Thankfully she has not seen these men since.

Although there are a growing numbers of women drivers in Kabul, the sight of Shahidy behind the wheel is still unusual. Everywhere she goes, she gets curious stares and frequent harassment, ranging from people making fun of her for driving to threats. I cant drive to places too distant from where I live due to the risk of kidnapping, she told me through the translation of her brother, Ali Shahidy, a psychology major at Norwich University in Vermont.

Despite the risk and danger, Shahidy says she loves to drive. Besides, she said, she faces more harassment when she walks or takes public transportation.

Some of Shahidys relatives believe her driving is dishonorable and will reflect poorly on them, but her immediate family strongly supports her decision, including her older brother Ali. Although the cultural norm is that elders drive, Ali rides as a passenger when he is with her because, he says, I want both men and women to see us together and to see her driving.

The more people who see women driving on streets, the more common it becomes, he said. It is changing now. One could rarely see a female driver in Kabul many years ago. But today we have more women drivers than we ever had.

Noorjahan Akbar, an activist, blogger and American University masters student, agrees. When she learned to drive in Afghanistan a few years ago, she recalls passing a group of children. One of the girls looked up and yelled in Pashtu, Look, its a girl! For many youths, seeing someone like Akbar or Shahidy behind the wheel is the first time they have seen a woman drive.

In 1992, after the communist regime was ousted in Afghanistan, women were discouraged from driving. When the Taliban came to power in 1996, women were banned from driving; the penalty was death. Once the Taliban rule ended, a trickle of women began driving. In 2002, for example, seven of the 8,698 drivers licenses issued were to women, and in 2003, Medica Mondiale, a German medical organization, began teaching women to drive. Fast forward a decade and 20 times as many women received a drivers license, 140 in 2012.

Akbar finds harassment and opposition today usually comes from re-radicalized youth who are influenced by Islamist propaganda. In contrast, the older generation who remember when women had more freedom and drove are less combative, she said.

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She The People: Women drivers in Afghanistan must brave the traffic and the stares

Iran Navy fighting pirates in southern waters
October 6, 2014 (Persian calendar 1393/7/14) Iran Navy fighting pirates in southern waters.

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Iran Navy fighting pirates in southern waters - Video

Aliens Predict Russia Takes Iran, Europe US Civil Wars, US Splits into 5
An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Such anomalies may later...

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Aliens Predict Russia Takes Iran, Europe & US Civil Wars, US Splits into 5 - Video

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday lashed out at regional rival Iran, accusing the Shiite powerhouse of having forces inside Syria, Iraq and Yemen, and insisting that Iran is "part of the problem" in trying to defuse the myriad Mideast crises.

Saud al-Faisal said that Tehran should pull its troops which he called "occupying forces" from the three Mideast nations stricken by conflicts and violence if it wants to be part of the solution.

Al-Faisal did not elaborate on his allegations.

Iran insists it has no forces on the ground in any of the three countries, but has sent advisers to help Syrian President Bashar Assad keep his hold on power and to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to battle the Islamic State group.

Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided Assad's government with military and political backing for years. Iran also is believed to be sending weapons and money to Syria.

Saudi Arabia has joined the U.S.-led coalition in air strikes against Islamic State fighters who have taken over parts of Iraq and Syria, saying it seeks to both support the Syrian opposition battling Assad and crush the extremist fighters.

"In many of these conflicts, Iran is part of the problem and not part of the solution," al-Faisal said during a press conference in the Saudi city of Jiddah with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"If Iran wants to contribute to solving the problems in Syria, it should withdraw its troops from Syria," he said, adding the same applies to Yemen and Iraq.

Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have also joined in airstrikes against the extremist group, while Qatar is providing logistical support.

Also Monday, Qatar's emir arrived to Saudi Arabia for a meeting with King Abdullah. It is Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's second visit to the kingdom in the past three months. The two were to discuss regional issues related to the fight against the Islamic State group, Saudi media said.

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Saudi Top Diplomat Criticizes Iran Over Conflicts