The police chief on Tuesday claimed that 160 Taliban militants were killed and 52 others wounded in a recent operation in southern Helmand province.

Police on Tuesday said 13 armed groups operated in eastern Kunar province, but none of them were able to capture any security position from Afghan forces.

NATO chief Jen Stoltenberg on Monday said he spoke to President Ashraf Ghani and discussed with him the peace process, saying the western military alliance’s position has not changed and their troops presence in Afghanistan was conditions based.

A number of former military chiefs and members of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) have said the Taliban are not able to get access to hi-tech drones without the help of neighboring countries.

Abdullah Naji Nazari, a member of the Badakhshan Provincial Council, said Tuesday the Taliban attacked a checkpoint in Pul-e-Soch in Badakhshan’s Jurm district at midnight on Monday.

Meshrano Jirga (Upper House of Parliament) members on Tuesday called on US President-elect Joe Biden to reconsider US policies on Afghanistan that were mostly instituted during outgoing President Donald Trump’s tenure. The senators said a review of policies would be in the interests of security in Afghanistan.

Pence said US forces mission in Afghanistan has been vital to the security of the American people. US Vice President Mike Pence in an address to soldiers who returned from Afghanistan said because of their “service in Afghanistan, there has not been another major terrorist attack on America in the intervening 19 years.”

The Taliban called on president-elect Joe Biden to honour a US agreement to withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan by May to secure intra-Afghan peace talks and end the two-decade war.

In the southern province of Kandahar, Panjwai and Arghandab have witnessed recent battles between the Afghan security forces and the Taliban. Over 40 Afghan security force members have been killed in fighting with the Taliban over the past 24 hours, with the majority of casualties reported in volatile areas in Kunduz, Baghlan and Nimroz province.

Prices of fuel, firewood, Russian gold and ghee increased during the outgoing week in Kabul, market sources said on Saturday. A worker of Hashimi fuel station in Taimani Square said the price of one litre of petrol rose from 36afs to 40afs and the same quantity of diesel from 38afs to 43afs.