The growing violence underscores rising insecurity in Afghanistan over the resurgent Taliban.
The country is bracing for an intense fighting season in the spring as the government's repeated bids to launch peace negotiations with the Taliban have failed.
Afghan forces, already beset by record casualties, desertions and non-existent “ghost soldiers” on the payrolls, have been struggling to beat back the Taliban since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.
Kabul last month endorsed U.S. general John Nicholson's call for thousands of additional coalition troops in Afghanistan to fend off the militants before the spring offensive.
Extra troops were needed to end the stalemate in the war, Gen. Nicholson, top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told the U.S. Congress in what could be President Donald Trump's first major test of military strategy.
