Kabul: Afghan officials say the Taliban have killed 30 policemen in a blistering overnight attack in western Farah province.
Provincial council member Dadullah Qani said on Thursday that the onslaught on the police outpost in the province's district of Khaki Safed began late on Wednesday and continued for more than four hours.
In Kabul, lawmaker Samiullah Samim said the district police commander, Abdul Jabhar, was among those killed.
The Taliban managed to flee with a large number of weapons and ammunition. Samim says retaliatory airstrikes killed 17 Taliban fighters.
The Taliban have in recent months been staging near-daily attacks across Afghanistan, inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces.
Authorities no longer regularly provide casualty figures but unofficial estimates say about 45 Afghan police or soldiers are killed or wounded daily.