Local officials in Nangarhar province confirm that eight security forces were killed and five others wounded in a Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam group attack in Pachiragam and Nazian districts.

Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for Nangarhar, said the Taliban had attacked security checkpoints in the Pachiragam area of the Garikhel district last night.

He said three Taliban militants were killed and two others were wounded in the attack.

Attaullah Khogyani said that two local army soldiers were killed in an attack by Lashkar-e-Islam in the Nazi district of the province.

The attacks come as talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are set to begin in a few days.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) reported 107 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, bringing the total tally to 37,269 cases, the country’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed.

“Within the past 24 hours, 587 suspected cases were tested, out of which 107 cases were tested coronavirus positive,” the ministry said in a statement.

The statement cited that 187 Coronavirus patients recovered during the period which the tally reached 26, 415.

A total of 16 COVID-19 patients succumbed to the virus, taking the number of people who lost their lives to 1,344 since the outbreak of the pandemic in February.

Kunduz police say a group leader of Taliban bomb makers along with nine other insurgents were killed by their own bomb blast.

According to the Kunduz Police press release, the man, known as Saif-ur-Rahman, known as “Yakshaneh”, along with nine of his men on Monday night were killed when they tried to plant a barrel mine on the Kunduz-Aliabad district highway.

Hijratullah Akbari, a spokesman for the provincial police, said that Saif-ul-Rahman and nine of his men were killed and several others were injured in the blast.

Afghanistan’s cabinet has decided that the schools should reopen from August 22, the government said on Monday.

President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in the cabinet meeting held on Monday evening said, the Ministry of Education plans to start public and private schools in accordance with the Ministry of Public Health’s health guidelines on August 22.

The meeting was held with the participation of cabinet members and governors through a video conference in the Presidential Palace.

This comes as the public and private schools in the country have been closed since the beginning of this year due to the outbreak of the Corona virus.

Pakistan’s media outlets have reported that the transit trade on Pakistan-Afghanistan border will resume to the pre-corona level in a week, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan assured the country’s business community in a meeting.

“Pak-Afghan border issue has been prolonged for quite some time now and will be resolved in a week,” a statement has quoted Khan as saying after a meeting with a delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). “Blockage will be removed allowing traffic flow to resume as previously before the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

The Pakistani prime minister assured the business delegation that all their proposals would be considered and action would be taken upon them on priority basis.

“All issues and concerns are genuine and require immediate attention,” he said. “In case need be directives will be addressed to the relevant ministries for the follow up till matters are resolved,” he added.