KABUL — Afghan officials announced Monday that 36 militants were killed over the past two days, as regime forces fought back following a wave of coordinated Taliban attacks across the country.
Fifteen died — either shot dead or by blowing themselves up — in the capital Kabul and 21 more were killed as death squads struck nearby Gardez, Jalalabad and Pul-i-Alam.
Eight members of the Afghan security forces and three civilians also died, Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi said, according to AFP.
The Kabul raid — the Taliban’s biggest assault on the capital since being ousted from power more than 10 years ago — lasted 18 hours, with the final few insurgents slain early Monday in dawn raids conducted by forces near the city’s parliament building.
Meanwhile, a final gunman holed up in a property opposite the parliament building was also killed, Al Jazeera reported.
Sunday’s attacks in three areas of Kabul targeted the parliament, foreign embassies and military bases, marking the start of the Taliban’s spring offensive.
Afghan security forces took the lead in countering the assault, but a spokesman for NATO forces in the country said they had provided air support in response to requests from the Afghans.
As well as the 47 people killed, about 40 members of the Afghan security forces and 25 civilians were injured.
The attacks highlighted the precarious security situation in Afghanistan as NATO prepares to withdraw its 130,000 troops by the end of 2014 and hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces.
US Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the ability of Afghan security forces to respond to the attacks was a “clear sign of progress.”
US defense sources told The Wall Street Journal they did not want to play down the strikes, acknowledging they were relatively sophisticated and involved multiple, coordinated attacks. But at the same time, officials stressed that the attacks were ultimately unsuccessful.
“It is an attention grabber, but it was not a game changer,” said one senior defense official.
However, later Monday, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said the Taliban attacks showed an intelligence failure by both Afghan and NATO forces.
“The terrorists’ infiltration in Kabul and other provinces is an intelligence failure for us and especially for NATO and should be seriously investigated,” Karzai said in a statement.