At least 20 members of the police were killed in a series of Taliban attacks against a dozen checkpoints in the southern province of Kandahar in Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday.
Some 22 policemen were killed and 15 wounded in the attack that took place over six hours, they added.
"There were a total of four US service members injured and all are in stable condition in US medical treatment facilities," a spokesman for NATO's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said, adding there were no fatalities.
The raids in the southern province of Kandahar and the western province of Farah on Monday night came hours after a suicide attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a US military convoy, wounding four soldiers.
The security forces on Tuesday also had to contend with militant attacks in the west that killed eight soldiers.
Government forces killed 45 insurgents and wounded 35 and none of the police checkpoints was captured in the overnight attacks, officials said.
“Our forces resisted until they received reinforcements and air support,” said Zia Durrani, spokesman for Kandahar’s police chief. “The Taliban were defeated.”
The Taliban told reporters by WhatsApp that they killed 43 police and members of a militia and destroyed 13 armored vehicles.
The insurgents often exaggerate battlefield casualties.
The Taliban also attacked Bala Boluk, in the western province of Farah, on Tuesday, killing eight soldiers and wounding three, according to the provincial government.
Farah governor spokesman Naser Mehri told AFP nine Afghan National Army soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in the province bordering Iran that also claimed the lives of at least three civilians.
"There are signs the Taliban may have used night vision technology to approach and surprise our forces, though they were spotted before reaching the posts and suffered casualties," Mehri said.
The government’s control or influence over the country has fallen to just under 60 percent, down six percentage points from last year, according to the United States’ Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
In August, Trump announced that American forces would stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, increasing attacks on insurgents and deploying more troops.
