KABUL — A new wave of Taliban attacks across Afghanistan killed at least11 Afghan soldiers and policemen on Tuesday, officials said, the latest ina particularly deadly week of assaults by militants.

At least five soldiers were killed when their checkpoint was attacked bythe Taliban in western Farah province, according to Mohammad Naser Mehri,the provincial governor’s spokesman.

Two soldiers were wounded in that attack, in the Bala Buluk district. Mehrisaid six Taliban fighters were killed and three others were wounded in thebattle, which lasted several hours.

“Reinforcements have arrived and right now, the situation is undercontrol,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, insurgents killed at least four members of the localpolice force and wounded seven in eastern Ghazni province.

The Taliban there targeted the local police security post in the province’sdistrict of Jaghatu, said Arif Noori, spokesman for the provincialgovernor. He also said the gunbattle lasted several hours and that theTaliban used artillery and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for boththe Farah and the Ghazni attacks in messages to the media. He said theTaliban took two Afghan soldiers captive in the Farah attack but there wasno immediate confirmation from the Afghan military on that.

Later Tuesday, two policemen were killed and six soldiers were captured inattacks on their checkpoints in western Badghis province, said MohammadNaser Nazari, a member of the provincial council.

He blamed the Taliban and said insurgents there stormed several police andmilitary checkpoints in Qadis district before reinforcements arrived andthe situation was brought under control.

It has been a particularly deadly week in Afghanistan.

The Health Ministry in Kabul on Tuesday raised the death toll from ahorrific suicide bombing by the Islamic State group earlier this week to60, after three more of the wounded had died in hospital.

The ministry also said the number of wounded from Sunday’s attack, whichtargeted a voter registration center in Kabul, was now at 130 after all thedata had been collected, including from private hospitals where thecasualties were also taken after state hospitals became overwhelmed in theimmediate aftermath of the bombing.

Also, on Monday, Taliban attacks in western Afghanistan killed 18 soldiersand policemen. – Agencies