A TOLOnews study has found that despite widespread attacks by the Taliban in September, security incidents were down by 24 percent and military operations by security forces also dropped by five percent compared to the month of August.

However, by the start of October, Taliban attacks on several provinces including Kunduz, Farah, Helmand and Zabul increased sharply.

The most serious attacks by the group in September were the group attack on Trin Kot in Uruzgan, suicide attacks near the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and near Care International Organization in Kabul, and the capture of Omna district in Paktika.

"It shows that with the decrease of insurgents' attacks, security forces operations also decreased. It indicates that the security forces are still in a reactive mode," said Abbas Hussaini, TOLOnews' researcher.

In the month of September, around 527 military operations, 125 detection and capture incidents, 40 bombings, 121 attacks by insurgents, 21 armed attacks, 18 kidnapping cases, 75 airstrikes and three suicide attacks were recorded.

TOLOnews findings shows that Nangarhar with 125 incidents, Uruzgan with 79 incidents, Helmand with 77 incidents, Kunduz with 64 incidents, Ghazni with 53 incidents and Kandahar with 51 incidents were the most insecure provinces and that Bamiyan and Panjshir without any security incidents were the safest provinces in the month of September.

"Government should change its war tactic. Otherwise, thousands of soldiers will get busy on war fronts and cannot defeat war fronts by the current war fronts tactic," said Mirza Yarmand, a former military official.

According to TOLOnews findings, war casualties also decreased by 19 percent in the month of September.

Based on the figures stated by TOLOnews, in the month of September, around 2,020 insurgents, 321 security forces, 124 civilians and 11 men from people uprising were killed in clashes that represent a 29 percent decrease in security forces and a nine percent decrease in insurgents' casualties against the previous month.

"Our emphasis is to have the most vulnerable provinces such as Kunduz, Baghlan and Helmand a priority to prevent them from falling to Taliban," said Najib Danish, deputy spokesman for the ministry of interior.

"In war there are three things, attack, defense and retreat, but mostly as our tactic requires, we take a defensive position and then attack," said Mohammad Rad Manish, deputy spokesman for the MoD.

September also witnessed other sttacks. On the 28 September, a drone airstrike in the Achin district of Nangarhar killed 13 civilians and a strike by the national army in Bala Block district of Helmand province, killed five commandos.

In addition to this, 89 checkpoints in Trin Kot and 150 checkpoints in Helmand provinces were handed over to Taliban without any clashes.