The air attacks in the western Badghis province also injured two other people, according to officials.

At least 10 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in air attacks by Afghan security forces in the western Badghis province, officials said.

Two other people were wounded in Friday night’s attacks in Bala Murghab district, Ziauddin Akazai, a legislator from Badghis, said.

Abdul Aziz Beg, head of the provincial council, said fighters surrounded an army base in the district.

He said helicopters were trying to reach the base, but fighters were shooting from nearby villages.

Three children, two women and five men were among those killed in the attacks, Beg said.

The Taliban, which controls roughly half of Afghanistan, posted photos of dead children on Twitter.

Also on Friday, at least eight people were killed and more than 30 others injured in an IED blast near the entrance of Kabul University.

The IED, planted in a car parked next to the southern entrance of the university, exploded as dozens of candidates studying law queued up for their exams, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack which comes on the heels of the country’s spy agency, NDS, taking into custody a Kabul University lecturer among others on charges of propagating pro-ISIL ideology and recruiting fighters for the armed group.