At least seven Afghan soldiers were killed when the Taliban attacked their base Tuesday, the latest brazen assault in Afghanistan’s north, where local and international forces are bracing for violent months ahead. Winter once marked a slowdown in the so-called “fighting season”, with Taliban fighters returning to their villages because snow and ice made attacks more difficult to pull off. In Tuesday’s incident, a joint military base in the Dawlat Abad district of Balkh province near the Uzbekistan border was attacked, the Afghan defence ministry said.
