KABUL/MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Suspected Taleban militants led a string of attacks on police and civilians across northern and eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 14 people, security officials said.

The violence reflects the militants’ persistent campaign against Afghanistan’s Western-backed government, which last month signed separate security agreements with the United States and NATO allowing over 10,000 foreign troops to train and advise Afghan forces after the international combat mission ends at the end of the year.

Two Taleban gunmen in police uniforms attacked the headquarters of police in Afghanistan’s major northern city Mazar-i-Sharif on Sunday, killing two and injuring at least 18 others according to local officials.

Separately, Taleban attacked a police checkpoint in Monogai district of eastern Kunar province, killing three police officers and wounding three others, an Interior Ministry statement said. Six Taliban militants were killed and six others wounded in the battle.

The insurgents have stepped up attacks on Afghan security forces over the summer fighting season, taking advantage of the withdrawal of foreign troops to regain strategic territory around the country.

In the Alishing district of eastern Laghman province, a rocket fired by militants killed three construction company workers, said Sarhadi Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

A car bomber carried out a suicide attack in eastern Wardak province, killing three civilians and three army soldiers in a strike that blew out several vehicles, said Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor. Six other civilians and two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in Sayed Abad district.

Ambitious attacks on security forces are rare in northern Balkh province, where Sunday’s incident took place, but in other parts of Afghanistan, insurgents battle the police and army daily.

“It was the first such incident in Balkh province,” said Abdul Razaq Qaderi the acting police chief of Balkh. “Police reacted quickly and killed both of them.”

The Taliban swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying the suicide bomber had inflicted “heavy losses” on police in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Two policemen were killed in attack, a police spokesman said, while a further 18 were injured according to the public health chief in Balkh province.

The attack followed a similar assault a day earlier in southern Helmand province, where a police officer was killed and others injured by a suicide bomber at the police headquarters in Lashkar Gar.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, six people including three soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his car loaded with explosives near a convoy in central Wardak province, the governor’s office said in a statement.