Local sources confirmed that at least 16 security personnel have been killed in an attack on a checkpoint at the Salma Dam in western Herat province.
Salma dam located on the Hari River in the Chishti Sharif District of Herat Province in western Afghanistan, was attacked on Sunday night by Taliban, according to local sources.
Sources claimed that the checkpoint and its equipment had fallen into the hands of Taliban.
The Afghan-India Friendship Dam, which is 20 km in length and three kilometers in width, has a water storage capacity of 640 million cubic meters.
The Salma Dam which is a major project in Afghanistan, is one of India’s most expensive infrastructure projects in Afghanistan in recent decades.
The dam, which is 20 km in length and three kilometers in width, has the capacity to irrigate 200,000 acres of farmland from the Chishti Sharif District of Herat to the Zulfiqar area on the Iran Border.
So far, both the Taliban and government officials have not commented on the matter.
This comes as the hydroelectric dam projects have been a target of Taliban attacks in the past, but the Taliban claimed that there was no plan to demolish the Salma Dam.
