Heavy fighting breaks out in Afghanistan's Badakhshan, 20 Taliban terrorists killed

Kabul [Afghnaistan], July 3 : Twenty Taliban terrorists were killed on Saturday in heavy fighting between Afghan defence forces and the terror group in Badakhshan province.
"A total of 20 Taliban rebels and three soldiers have been killed in Badakhshan over the past 24 hours," an army officer in the province Captain Abdul Razaq said Saturday..
In the meantime, some locals on the condition of anonymity said that the Taliban fighters had captured the headquarters of Tagab, Kishim, Tashkan and Shahr-e-Buzarg districts of Badakhshan over the past 24 hours, Xinhua reported.
Afghanistan is witnessing a surge in violence as the Taliban has intensified its offensive against civilians and Afghan defence and security forces.
This comes as foreign forces are withdrawing from the war-torn country.
However, Badakhshan's provincial government spokesman Nik Mohammad Nazari in talks with Xinhua has denied the fall of the districts to the Taliban terrorists, saying that the fighting has been continuing.
As the Taliban have taken control of several districts across the country, US intelligence assessments have suggested the country's civilian government could fall to the terror group within months of US forces withdrawing.