KABUL: Insurgents launched attacks in several Afghan provinces on Wednesday, killing at least 10 policemen and three civilians, officials said. Villagers also found the bodies of eight slain policemen who were abducted by militants two weeks ago.

In northeastern Badakhshan province, a large group of insurgents attacked several police checkpoints simultaneously, forcing the police to retreat and triggering gunbattles that were still raging in the early afternoon. Six policemen were killed there.

In eastern Laghman province, insurgents wearing head-to-toe burqas — the traditional women’s covering that encompasses the female body — launched an attack on a district base belonging to the local police, killing four policemen.

Last week, the Taleban launched their annual spring offensive in a renewed campaign of assaults on the Afghan police and military. This time, the offensive is expected to be an important gauge of how well Afghan forces can face the insurgents once foreign combat forces leave at the end of the year.

In a statement to media, the Taleban claimed responsibility both for Badakhshan and the Laghman attacks and said they were part of the spring offensive named Operation Khaibar.

In the attack in Badakhshan, the insurgents targeted police checkpoints in Yamgan district, said Gen. Fazeluddin Ayar, the province’s police chief. The fighting started late Tuesday and was still underway Wednesday, he said.

Reinforcements were sent to the location but the police were forced to pull back tactically from the area and were now fighting the Taleban forces in the mountains around the district, Ayar said.

Afghan Army helicopters were flying over the district as the battle raged on below, he added. Apart from the six officers killed, five insurgents also died in the and three police officers were wounded, Ayar said.

The Taleban said their mujahedeen, or holy warriors, raised the insurgents’ white flag above the Yamgan district headquarters in Badakhshan in a sign of conquest.

In the attack in Laghman province, insurgents in burqas opened machinegun fire and fired rocket-propelled grenades into the local police base in Alingar district in the morning hours, said Sarhadi Zwak, also a spokesman for the provincial governor. He said four members of the Local Police were killed and that there were causalities among the Taleban but gave no further details.

In other attacks Wednesday, a suicide bomber walked into a district building in Hasarak in eastern Nangarhar province and set off his explosives’ vest, killing two civilians, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

Abdulzai said seven people were also wounded in the attack, including district administrative chief Abdul Khaliq, whose condition was not life threatening.

A woman was killed when a bomb hidden in a bag exploded at a bazaar in northern Faryab province, police spokesman Sayed Massoud Yaqiubi said. Eight civilians were wounded in that explosion in Pashtun Kot district, he said.

And a sticky bomb attached to a local bus wounded a woman in Bagram district in Parwan province, said police chief Massom Farzahee. He said the belonged to a private company.

This year, the Taleban spring offensive also comes as voters prepare to go to the polls for the second round of presidential balloting on June 14. The Taleban have pledged to disrupt the vote with bombings and other violence, although the first round of voting on April 5 passed relatively peacefully.