...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
, were killed in an attack by gunnies early Tuesday morning, an official said.
Nizamuddin Khpulwak, front man for National Water Affairs Regulation Authority, said the attack happened at around 3 am on Tuesday in which four more security force members were maimed.
Head of the Pashdan dam, Mohammad Arif Achakzai, told TOLOnews that the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...attacked an outpost far from the dam.
He said the outpost has a lot of distance from the surrounding wall of the dam.
Taliban so far has not commented on the incident.
The dam is located in Karokh, 25 kilometers northwest of Herat city.
Herat governor's front man Jailani Farhad said the security forces killed the attackers by chasing them to a village in Pashtun Zarghon district in the province. He said five Taliban were killed in response by security forces to the attack.
The dam has the capacity of 45 million cubic meters of water, generates two megawatts of power, and has the capacity to irrigate 13,000 hectares of land, officials said.
The project is worth $117 million, according to officials.
This comes as at least 11 workers of the Pashdan Dam were kidnapped by the Taliban last month, according to Wakil Ahmad Karokhi, a provincial council member.