Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan, in anticipation of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, massacred 25 Afghan policemen in the turbulent southern part of the country during the weekend. They also executed a German aid worker and decapitated her Afghan guard in the nation’s capital of Kabul.

“A group of Taliban fighters armed with heavy and light weapons launched coordinated attacks on several police checkpoints in Shajoy district of Zabul province, killing 20 policemen,” provincial governor Bismillah Afghanmal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Many Taliban fighters have also been killed.”

Taliban terrorists wounded 15 other policemen, AFP learned from an unnamed district official.

The governor of Zabul, located along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, indicated that “some 1,000 Taliban fighters stormed the police outposts [on Saturday and Sunday] along the highway leading to the regional hub of Kandahar,” reports Fox News.

An unnamed senior Taliban commander from the eastern city of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar, told Fox News Sunday that the weekend attacks come in anticipation of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when martyrdom and engaging in jihad are especially valued and encouraged by Islamic extremists.

“As the holy month of fasting is approaching next week, we are engaged in attacking maximum government installments and foreign troops to close our offensive,” declared the senior Taliban commander from Nangarhar, also considered a stronghold of the group’s rival, the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

“We are trying to gain maximum attacks in spring offensive to dismantle Kabul,” added the commander.

Zabul lies next to opium-rich Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, which generates up to 60 percent of its funding for terrorist activities from the deadly poppy crops.

Citing Najib Danish, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Interior, CNN reports, “A German woman was shot and killed and her Afghan guard beheaded when attackers targeted a guest house for aid workers Saturday night in Kabul, Afghanistan.”

The Taliban terrorists also kidnapped a Finnish national during the assault, noted the Swedish relief organization Operation Mercy.

The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a watchdog agency, recently told American lawmakers:

[T]housands of Coalition personnel and contractors have also died during the conflict. Afghan losses have been the greatest of all: more than twice as many ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] members were killed in the single year of 2016 than U.S. forces in Afghanistan have lost since 2001.

The majority of the historic ANDSF and civilian casualties have been at the hands of the Taliban savages. ANDSF members include police officers and soldiers.

The Taliban threatens more than half of Zabul (six of 11 districts), the provincial Gov. Afghanmal told reporters.

According to SIGAR, predominantly Taliban terrorists control or contest 40 percent of all of Afghanistan.

The jihadist group controls more territory now than at any time since the American military removed it from power in 2001.

“A dangerous and stubborn insurgency controls or exerts influence over areas holding about a third of the Afghan population,” reported the U.S watchdog agency, adding,

Heavy casualties and capability gaps limit the effectiveness of Afghan soldiers and police. Opium production stands near record levels. Illiteracy and poverty remain widespread. Corruption reaches into every aspect of national life. The rule of law has limited reach.

The most recent World Threat Assessment, authored by the U.S. intelligence community, warns that the security situation in Afghanistan will continue to deteriorate.

U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of American and NATO forces in the war-ravaged country, has accused Russia, Iran, and Pakistan of lending military support to the Taliban.

Unlike its predecessor, President Donald Trump’s administration does not hesitate to refer to the Taliban as a “terrorist” group.