Dedar Lawang, spokesperson for the provincial governor, told Anadolu Agency the incident took place in the Sark district of the province.
He said dozens of Taliban insurgents staged the attack, adding: “The attack was repulsed and ‘scores’ of the Taliban were also killed, unfortunately, we have nine soldiers martyred.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
This comes after President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday renewed his call on the Taliban to cease-fire amid the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
“The UN Secretary-General, and in particular some countries in the region, have called on all parties to the conflict to a cease-fire in order to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by the crisis. I call on the Taliban to respond positively to this legitimate call by the UN, the countries of the region, the people of Afghanistan and the government to end the war and cease-fire,” Ghani said in a televised speech.
On Thursday, health authorities in Afghanistan confirmed a total of 840 coronavirus cases in the country so far, with 30 casualties and 54 recoveries. As per the fresh figures, the capital Kabul has surpassed frontline state of Herat, bordering Iran, in number of daily infections.
Since the virus emerged last December in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it has spread to at least 185 countries and regions. There are more than 2.07 million confirmed infections globally, with over 137,600 deaths and 518,600 recoveries, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry says the Taliban has killed nine government soldiers in an overnight attack on an army post in the Charkh District of Logar Province, in the eastern part of the country.
Fawad Aman, a spokesman at the ministry, told RFE/RL that Taliban the Taliban had suffered “heavy casualties,” in the violence, without giving further details.
Didar Ahmad Lawang, a spokesman for the governor of Logar, confirmed the number of soldiers killed.
The Taliban did not immediately comment.
Taliban militants have been carrying out attacks despite signing a peace deal with the United States in February aimed at ending the 18-year war.
That deal envisions the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan by July 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban, which is obliged to launch direct talks with the Afghan government over a permanent cease-fire and a power-sharing arrangement.
Scheduled for March 10, the intra-Afghan negotiations have been delayed due to political bickering in Kabul and a dispute among the warring sides over a prisoner swap.
