Taliban

Joshua Boyle spoke to reporters after landing in Canada with his wife Caitlan Coleman and children following almost five years in captivity.

They were captured while reportedly backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012.

Ms Coleman's father has said the decision to visit the dangerous country was "unconscionable".

Both sets of parents have previously questioned why the couple were in Afghanistan in the first place.

Five others were injured in the assault on the facility in Shah Wali Kot district, defence ministry spokesman Dawlat Wazir told the BBC.

It comes four days after 10 Afghan soldiers were killed when Taliban militants stormed another base in the same area.

The Taliban said it had carried out the attack, AFP news agency reports.

Last month, the Taliban announced the start of their "spring offensive" a week after killing at least 135 Afghan soldiers in a military compound near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif.

A police source told the BBC that an infiltrator from the Taliban had allowed militants into the outpost in the regional capital, Lashkar Gah. The infiltrator fled with the Taliban.

Other reports said the infiltrator killed the policemen himself.

A spokesperson for the provincial governor confirmed the attack, but did not provide details.

Local television news reported that the Taliban seized weapons and ammunition from the scene, and that a local hospital had confirmed receipt of at least 11 bodies.

Besides the 30 civilians, two US service members were killed in the operation that targeted Taliban leaders planning additional attacks in Kunduz city.

"I deeply regret the loss of innocent lives, regardless of the circumstances," Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement Saturday.

"The loss of innocent life is a tragedy and our thoughts are with the families. We will work with our Afghan partners to investigate and determine the facts and we will work with the government of Afghanistan to provide assistance."

The city of 200,000 people is the capital of Helmand province, parts of which have been seized back by the militant group.

The new assault is their most concerted push yet into the city, in the south of the country.

At least 14 people were killed by a suicide bomber in Lashkar Gah on Monday. including 10 police officers.

The city was the scene of heavy fighting between the Taliban and Nato-led forces before their withdrawal in 2014.

Azam Tariq died in Paktika province, near Pakistan's border. His son and nine others were also reported killed.

Tariq was a former Pakistani Taliban spokesman and part of a breakaway faction after the group split in 2014.

Many Pakistani Taliban now operate from Afghanistan after they were dislodged from strongholds in north-west Pakistan by a military offensive.

Asadullah Omarkhel's announcement came hours after Khanabad district was seized by Taliban fighters.

But local sources told the BBC that Taliban fighters were still present near the district headquarters.

The newly arrived government forces aimed to open the road link to the city of Kunduz, the governor said.

Afghanistan's independent Tolo TV news channel also reported that government troops had recaptured Khanabad, which is about 30km (19 miles) east of Kunduz.

Two bombs hit a convoy of buses carrying graduates from a ceremony on the city's western outskirts.

Paghman District Governor Musa Khan told the BBC that all but two of the dead were police cadets.

The bombing was claimed by the Taliban and followsan attack on a bus just over a week ago that killed 14 people.

A Taliban spokesman said that in Thursday's attack, the first bomber attacked one bus and when rescuers began to arrive the second drove an explosives-laden car into their vehicles.

Government forces have conducted a major operation freeing most of the hostages, but estimate more than 30 are still being held.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the incident in Aliabad district in the volatile province of Kunduz, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital in a stunning military victory last year.

"The Taliban shot dead 16 passengers and they are still holding more than 30 others," said Sayed Mahmood Danish, spokesman for the governor of Kunduz.

U.S. warplanes carried out an early morning airstrike on Taliban positions, but government ground troops sent to try to retake Kunduz, one of Afghanistan's wealthiest and most strategic cities, were stalled by roadblocks and ambushes, unable to move closer than about a mile (two kilometers) toward their target.

A NATO officer said more airstrikes were unlikely as "all the Taliban are inside the city and so are all the people." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media on the issue.