Taliban fighters have beheaded 15 civilians in battles for control of a key district near Kabul in a chilling echo of the brutality meted out by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The Ghazni provincial government said it has lost contact with police in the province's western district of Ajrestan after hundreds of insurgents stormed several villages in the area.
The attack by an estimated 700 Taliban fighters began about five days ago and early reports were that more than 100 people had been killed, provincial deputy governor Ahmadullah Ahmadi said.
At least 15 of those were decapitated, he added.
The main highway linking Kabul to southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been making advances in recent months, passes through the province, which lies southwest of Kabul.
'If there is no urgent help from the central government, the district will collapse,' said Asadullah Safi, deputy police chief of the area.
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Ruthless: Taliban fighters have beheaded 15 civilians in a battle for control of a district near Kabul (file picture)
The battle for Ajrestan illustrates the grave challenges facing Afghanistan's new president and the security forces in holding territory as foreign combat troops prepare to leave at the end of the year.
No longer pinned down by U.S. air cover, Taliban fighters are attacking Afghan military posts in large numbers with the aim of taking and holding ground.
Heavy fighting was continuing in Ajrestan today. Safi said a suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint early in the day before provincial authorities completely lost contact with the district.
The militants have been focusing on regaining important opium-growing areas, such as the southern province of Helmand, and areas where they have traditionally enjoyed support, such as Kunduz province in the north.
Control of Ghazni's mountainous Ajrestan district, about 200 km (125 miles) from Kabul, could provide the Taliban with a launching point for attacks in two bordering provinces and along the crucial artery connecting the capital to Afghanistan's second city of Kandahar in the south.
The growing Taliban threat is likely to be the most urgent challenge for the new, U.S.-brokered government of national unity between President-elect Ashraf Ghani and his former rival Abdullah Abdullah.
Fragile: The offensive illustrates the grave challenges facing Afghanistan's new president Ashraf Ghani (above) and the security forces in holding territory as foreign combat troops prepare to leave at the end of the year
Key target: Control of Ghazni's mountainous Ajrestan district, about 200 km (125 miles) from Kabul, could provide the Taliban with a launching point for attacks in two bordering provinces.
Provincial authorities have appealed for help from the central government in Kabul, where Ghani is in the process of taking over the presidency from Hamid Karzai.
'We have asked repeatedly for helicopters to evacuate the wounded, but so far nothing has been done,' Ahmadi said.
However, a regional spokesman for the Afghan army, Nazif Sultani, said on Friday that reinforcements had been sent to the district the previous day. He said he had no further information.
Months of deadlock over a disputed election and uncertainty over whether any U.S. troops will remain beyond this year has battered morale among Afghan security forces.
'Peace with the Taliban requires a strong government.
'At the moment the Taliban think they can fight in every province and they believe they can overthrow the government,' said Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdullah's running mate and the leader of Afghanistan's ethnic Hazara minority.
'Without international support it will be hard to provide security... The example of Ajrestan district shows that without international commitment of troops, it will be difficult to handle the Taliban.'
Well Cameron, this is a spanner in the works isn't it. Cameron was so sure that Isis were the main terrorists that had to be stopped, there was no group of people worse than Isis, was there Cameron, you stupid berk.
TheTaliban are no different than Isis, neither are Boko Haram, nether are Al- Qaeda or Hamas, or the Muslim Brotherhood. and all the other terrorist groups out there, they all could be one of the same, but using different names, which ever the case may be, they are ALL terrorists, they all kill, and they all want total world domination.
So Cameron, you have a little more to think about other than just Isis, and most of them are here in London, Tower Hamlets. Birmingham. Leicester and Bradford.