AKIPRESS.COM - Days after overrunning a major district in the northwestern Afghan province of Faryab, the Taliban killed at least 22 police officers and captured the district’s security chief along with many of his men after they ran out of ammunition, officials said on Tuesday.

The officials said that an Afghan Army base of several hundred soldiers and a road-construction camp housing Afghan police officers remained surrounded in the district, Ghormach, which has long been contested by the Taliban, NYTimes reports.

The fighting there intensified as the insurgents have kept up an intense series of offensives all around the country. Officials describe a clear shift in the tactics of the insurgents, who have been emboldened by their brief capture of the Kunduz provincial capital last month. The Taliban are no longer acting as a mere hit-and-run force, instead assaulting in larger numbers with the intention of holding territory.

In recent days, the Taliban have overrun checkpoints near Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of southern Helmand Province. They have also repeatedly attacked two districts in Herat Province: Ghurian, where fierce fighting continued late into Tuesday, and Shindand, home to an air base in western Afghanistan.