At least 57 members of the Afghan security forces were killed and dozens injured in overnight clashes with Taliban fighters across Afghanistan, security officials said on Monday, in the bloodiest day of fighting since government and insurgent forces began peace talks in Doha over a week ago.

Negotiating teams representing the Taliban and the Afghan government have been meeting in the Qatari capital since talks started on September 12. But little headway has been made, particularly on a ceasefire, which many international capitals have called for but which the insurgent group has rejected.

Sunday night’s bloodiest clashes were in the central province of Uruzgan, where 24 members of the Afghan security forces were killed when Taliban fighters attacked security checkpoints, Deputy Governor of the province Sayed Mohammad Sadat said.

Clashes and casualties were also reported in the provinces of Takhar, Helmand, Kapisa, Balkh, Maidan Wardak and Kunduz, provincial officials told Reuters.

In Balkh, the Taliban took hostage three members of Afghanistan’s spy organization, the National Directorate of Security, according to Monir Ahmad Farhad, spokesman for Balkh provincial governor.

The Taliban did not confirm casualties on their side, but according to a spokesman for the Pamir military corps, Abdul Hadi Jamal, 54 of the insurgents were killed in clashes in Kunduz, Takhar and Baghlan provinces on Sunday night.

A spokesman for the provincial government of Maidan Wardak, Muhibullah Sharifzai, said 26 Taliban fighters were killed in clashes there.

HD Editors Note: What Does This Have To Do With Bible Prophecy?

In Matthew 24, the disciples ask Jesus, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?”

Jesus’s response is a detailed description of the condition of the world and what it will look like in the last days. Wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, these being the beginning of sorrows. He depicts persecution and an abounding iniquity that would cause the love of many to wax cold and divisions that would cause loved ones to betray one another.

In Luke 21:25, Jesus says, “There will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth Distress of Nations with Perplexity, the seas and the wave roaring.”

With the current global state of turmoil amongst the nations, and we can’t help but recognize the distress of nations Jesus describes in Luke 21 and Matthew 24, matching what we see today.

Just as the psalmist tells us to lift our eyes, so does Jesus instruct his believers in the face of the times we are living in “When these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)